Following the successful Drawing Space in our Paris gallery, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac opened a new exhibition space for drawings in the former EDITIONS premises in Salzburg. Art historian Isabella Herzig will be in charge of the programme in the so called ZEICHNUNGSKABINETT. The first exhibition IDEA AND OBJECT is a multifaceted group exhibition of graphic works by seven internationally distinguished artists, with studies and representations of various stages of development in three-dimensional works on paper as the linking theme.
In contemporary art, the term "graphic" is undergoing a radical change. Traditional techniques such as etching, woodcut, charcoal, chalk and pencil drawing, watercolour and print are now combined with new media. Digital processing, photography, collage and mixed media are increasingly used, blurring the boundaries of familiar drawing techniques. The central element, however, is still the simple line -the characteristic feature of the abstraction and reduction of visual perception - though now used in free combination.
For this exhibition, we have selected primarily graphic works by sculptors, each illustrating, in a personal and distinctive artistic language, the path from inspiration to the finished three-dimensional work: capturing an idea in a cursory sketch, precise study determining form and volume, right up to the realisation of the sculpture. In the side wing of the Kast Villa, selected preparatory sketches and designs by Stephan Balkenhol, Tony Cragg, Matali Crasset, Antony Gormley, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Wolfgang Laib, Bernhard Martin, Marc Quinn, Not Vital and Erwin Wurm are on show. In order to demonstrate the proximity of the design to the end product, small sculptures by Tony Cragg, Stephan Balkenhol, Erwin Wurm and Not Vital are shown with the appropriate drawings.
