Drawing from the Modern, Volume 2: 1945-1975

Visual art in the period following World War II witnessed enormous transformations. In an unexpected way, drawing provides a powerful and vigorous device for reexamining the art of the period--for renewing appreciation of the extraordinary achievements of well-known artists and for discovering others. Drawing is among the most traditional of mediums, but despite the radical departures and shifts in the art of these years, it played a crucial role in the work of the great majority of the most significant artists. Drawing from the Modern, Part 2, surveys the drawing of the period through the unparalleled holdings of the drawings collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The postwar period saw the development of Abstract Expressionism in New York, followed by Pop art, Minimal art, and Conceptual art, and the Museum's collection has exceptional strength in these areas. Abstract drawings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Barnett Newman open this volume, followed by works of such key figures of the next generation as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly. Next, drawings by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol signal the arrival of a new figurative art, Pop art, on the forefront. But reductive and abstract art kept pace, and the Museum's collection offers a breathtaking array of drawings by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Richard Serra, and many others.