Category: Drawings
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1792, The Mermaid of Manila Bay
Earlier this morning, I saw Fernando Brambila’s graphite drawing of a dugong at a special exhibition at the Galería de las Colecciones Reales, beside the Palacio Real in Madrid. I thought it was a bizarre coincidence that exactly 234 years earlier, on 24 August 1792, the animal depicted in the drawing was captured in Manila…
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Josef Selleny’s View of Manila, 1858
When Josef Selleny visited Manila in 1858 as part of the Austrian Novara expedition, the city was a busy Spanish colonial port defined by walls, churches, cigar factories, river traffic, and the movement of hemp, tobacco, and other commodities. Shipping on the Pasig River at Manila belongs to this moment of maritime activity. Signed with…
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The Myth of a Degree Zero Moment
Degree Zero at MoMA provides counterpoints to the understanding of drawing’s role in post-war art. Gathering 75 works, made between 1948 and 1966, from Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Alfredo Volpi, and many others, as well as recent acquisitions by artists such as Uche Okeke, the exhibition freshly examines the commonly perceived…