“On Line:” Interesting new exhibition at MoMA

Who wouldn’t be drawn to an article that’s titled “Squiggly, Tangly, and Angular?” It appears that “On Line” is a new exhibition at MoMA, which was organized by chief curator of drawings at MOMA Connie Butler, and a guest curator, Catherine de Zegher, the former director of the Drawing Center in SoHo.

This exhibit focuses on the transition of art throughout the twentieth century. Artists began to shift from using paper or flat surfaces as their sole artistic medium, and decided to start exploring real three-dimensional space through the artistic lenses. The exhibition has over three hundred different pieces of art work by a wide range of artists, and it starts with Picasso. At the entrance is one of his pieces from 1912 which displays cut-cardboard guitars that seem to shoot right out at you. Around this Picasso piece are the works of other artists who decided to explore art in all of its dimensions. There’s Malevich who uses drawn lines to somehow create a fourth dimension. Artist Kurt Schwitters who treats his lines like beams and risers in hi architectural collages. Kandinsky (the exhibition’s title stems from his writing)  transforms his lines into visual dances.

And high above all of these art pieces, are late 19th century women flapping around in their dresses, dancing and performing a piece by the choreographer Loie Fuller (1862-1928). Loie Fuller inspired artists during her lifetime to “to think of drawing not as static and finite but as action in space and lines as points in motion.”

This is a very interesting display based on the description. It’s historical and based on a transition that’s been going on for a century, and that’s what makes it feel so contemporary. Art is not a still thing, or at least an amateur like I never thought it was. It is also not flat and lifeless, or rather, it shouldn’t be. Even the two dimensional drawings on a paper have the potential to be brought to life. If I’m correct, I believe that some of these pieces are on a canvas, yet they seem to represent more dimensions than the flat piece of cardboard paper would normally allow them to represent.

For more information on the exhibition, you can go to MoMa’s site.

The poster for the exhibition.