“Defining the Body: Contemporary Figuration on Paper”
Jonathan Borofsky, 2740152 [3], from the portfolio 2740475, 1982, screenprint on gray wove paper, edition 38/50, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Jonathan Borofsky
Eric Fischl, Year of the Drowned Dog, 1983, sugar-lift aquatint and soft-ground etching with scraping, drypoint, and roulette in colors on wove paper, edition III/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Eric Fischl
Louise Bourgeois, Ste Sebastienne, 1992, drypoint on wove paper, edition III/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Louise Bourgeois Trust
Alex Katz, 3 PM, 1988, woodcut on wove paper, edition VII/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Alex Katz
A. R. Penck (Ralph Winkler), Untitled, from the portfolio 8 Erfahrungen (8 Experiences), 1981, woodcut on wove paper, edition 7/50, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © A. R. Penck
Lesley Dill, Black Thread Figure, 1995, scraping, collage, acrylic paint, charcoal, ink, and black-and-white thread on gelatin silver (D.O.P.) print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Lesley Dill
Title
Defining the Body: Contemporary Figuration on Paper
Dates
August 1–November 1, 2015
Overview
Artists draw the form—nude or clothed, the entire body or certain parts—and look to their family members, friends, and self, as well as to models, as subjects. Defining the Body: Contemporary Figuration on Paper reflects on the evolution over the past 50 years of the human form as a long-standing art-historical subject.
The exhibition comprises drawings and prints from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. On view from Saturday, August 1, to Sunday, November 1, 2015, the installation presents examples of Realism by figurative artists of the 1960s and 1970s, such as George Segal and Philip Pearlstein; moves on to the Neo-Expressionist artists of the 1980s, including Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, and A. R. Penck; and continues with later representations of identity by artists of the 1990s and beyond, such as Louise Bourgeois, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith.
Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building / 5601 Main Street
Funding
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Media Contacts
Mary Haus, Whitney Radley, and Laine Lieberman
MFAH Communications
llieberman@mfah.org / 713.639.7516