Selections 26

In the largest group exhibition ever assembled as part of its Selections series, The Drawing Center inaugurated the fall season with Selections 26, which opened in 1984. The artists in the exhibition were: Roger Brouard, Peter Burgess, David Dawson, Jan van den Dobbelsteen, James Elaine, Barbara Friedman, Kwok Mang Ho, Charles Luce, Linus Meldrum, Andrew Moszynski, Dean Nimmer, Keith Ragone, Sabine Reckewell, Julie Shapiro, and Joel Sokolov. All of the artists had been chosen through the Center's Artists' Viewing Program and Open Portfolio Day.

Works in the exhibition varied from Joel Sokolov's acrylic paintings on paper — drawn directly from the television and depicting news and weather broadcasts — to Kwok Mang Ho's colorful synthesis of Chinese symbols and contemporary graffiti imagery. Barbara Friedman's cutout paper faces of schoolgirls and young women were painted in oil and wax and were arranged in random groupings.

Charles Luce based his "charts" on references to a westerner's concept of the Orient — often symbols which looked to be transcribed directly from Chinese calligraphy were actually invented by the artist. Similarly, Andrew Moszynski constructed his oil stick and ink drawings through a basic vocabulary of landscape representation — the resulting places were imaginary but drawn as if seen from eye level.

Peter Burgess's corner installation piece was actually part of a larger work questioning the role of a spectator. Old blueprints found on the street formed the ground for a visual language which included incomplete figures, radio transmitters, and television antennae in enigmatic works by James Elaine. Sabine Reckewell drew her inspiration from German landscape painters of the 18th century. Roger Brouard's black and white charcoal drawings related to musical compositions in the sense that each piece was an orchestration of linear rhythms established on paper.

Blind contour drawings of classical Greek relics and icons — later reworked and painted over — formed the basis for Dean Nimmer's iconography. Keith Ragone and Linus Meldrum alluded to a fundamental landscape source in their respective works, but both saw any objective reference in these drawings as nonspecific. Lines and shapes — from a non-objective source — were combined to convey a spiritual idea in small drawings by David Dawson. Julie Shapiro capitalized on the sensuality of paint and brush in her elegant abstract works while Jan van den Dobbelsteen isolated semi-recognizable objects in an atmospheric space created with charcoal.

The artists in Selections 26 presented at an informal symposium on Wednesday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. Each artist discussed his or her work and answered questions from the audience.