First Anniversary Exhibition

In celebration of its first anniversary, The Drawing Center presented an exhibition of works by 10 younger artists, who had not been exhibited in New York before. All of the works had been selected from The Drawing Center’s Artists’ Viewing Program, which had seen works by more than 700 artists from all over the United States during the past year. The 10 artists in the exhibition were Jonathan Andrews, Sarah Canright, Sue Grecon, Jane Greer, Charlotte Hart, James Levins, Alan McCord, Paul Neagu, Gerald Pryor, and Winston Roeth. In addition to presenting previously unseen work, the exhibition was designed to show the diversity of work younger artists were creating within the drawing medium. The exhibition included drawings for sculptures, watercolors for paintings, collages, and the traditional pencil on paper used in new ways. The exhibition was organized by Martha Beck, who was the Director of the Center.

Since its opening on January 14, 1977, The Drawing Center had become a unique forum for the exhibition and study of works of art on paper. During its first year the Center presented five exhibitions and attracted more than 125,000 visitors. The Artists’ Viewing Program permitted the staff to meet personally with artists, examine their work, and answer questions on conservation, matting and framing, and exhibition spaces for their work. The Center maintained resumes, slides, and photographs of the work of several hundred artists in notebooks which were readily available for public reference. The Center established a student internship program with five New York colleges and sponsored five workshops on paper conservation. Several catalogs and checklists were published, and the Center presented lectures, symposia, and readings in conjunction with the exhibitions.