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Georg Baselitz |
Elizabeth Peyton |
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Joseph Beuys |
Francis Picabia |
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Adrian Ghenie |
Robert Rauschenberg |
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David Hockney |
Raqib Shaw |
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Alex Katz |
Sturtevant |
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Robert Longo |
Banks Violette |
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Bjarne Melgaard |
Andy Warhol |
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Paul P. |
Yan Pei-Ming |
Watch curator Julia Peyton-Jones introduce the exhibition
The earliest work in the exhibition, Francis Picabia's La Chienne des Baskerville (c.1932–3), relates to the French artist's 'Transparencies' – paintings that layer art-historical imagery in surrealist expressions of his self-described 'interior desires'.
Untethered from clear narrative intent, the drawing encapsulates Picabia's innovative synthesis of diverse references from mythology, art history and literature — the latter evidenced in his unexpected reference to the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Through wordplay, the image is cast as a monstrous expression of sexualised femininity (une chienne) and becomes a complex psychological portrait of the artist and his desires.
Francis Picabia
La Chienne des Baskerville, c.1932–3
Ink and charcoal on paper
64 x 49 cm (25.2 x 19.29 in)
In this monumental charcoal drawing from 2017, Robert Longo painstakingly replicates a conservation X-ray image of Édouard Manet's last major work, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), which depicts a pensive barmaid in a bustling Parisian music hall.
The X-ray image reveals clues about the development of the painting, particularly the adjustments Manet made to the charismatic barmaid's pose in earlier stages of the composition, before arriving at her assertive pose. The multiple versions of the work are made visible simultaneously in Longo's drawing as he replicates the modulations of each brushstroke, revealing what usually remains unseen under the top layers of paint.
Robert Longo
Untitled (X-Ray of A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, After Manet), 2017
Charcoal on mounted paper
243.8 x 330.8 cm (95.98 x 130.24 in)
For me a portrait is a vehicle to see the whole universe. Through a face I can see everything that exists.
— Elizabeth Peyton
Elizabeth Peyton's reputation for poetic portrayals of well-known figures is evidenced in this portrait of Volodymyr Zelenskyy made in the weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The sixth and current president of the country, Zelenskyy has garnered international attention and admiration for his impassioned leadership during the ongoing military conflict. Peyton's expressive handling of her materials is suggestive of the complex inner life of her subject as she captures the leader's quiet strength, presenting an interplay between Zelenskyy's public and private personas.
Elizabeth Peyton
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, March 2022, 2022
Coloured pencil and pastel on paper
21.3 x 15.2 cm (8.39 x 5.98 in)
Articulated in his signature monochromatic palette, Yan Pei-Ming depicts himself as a young boy as part of his ongoing engagement with the individual's relationship to the passage of time. 'I did my first self-portrait at the age of thirteen,' he recalls. At the age of 10 he relocated to Paris: 'I went on a trip to Amsterdam and saw Rembrandt's self-portraits... When you look at his self-portraits, you can see the passage of time. It's so extraordinary, it unsettled me. I said to myself: "I'm going to think about it."' Presenting himself at different life stages, Yan Pei-Ming undertakes his continued investigation into questions of self-representation as he takes up and reworks art-historical conventions of portraiture.
Yan Pei-Ming
Autoportrait Jeune, 2006
Watercolour on paper
44.5 x 33.5 cm (17.52 x 13.18 in)
— Paul P.
Canadian artist Paul P. unites nineteenth-century aesthetic modes with images appropriated from gay erotic magazines in his intimate studies of young men. In this untitled work from 2005, he utilises the traditional drawing technique of cross-hatching to reference an art-historical legacy of image-making that dates back to the Renaissance. The overlapping lines of graphite create a sense of depth and shadow to articulate the head and chest of the reclining male figure against a dark background as his face is bathed in an ethereal light.
Paul P.
Untitled, 2005
Graphite on paper
28 x 34 cm (11.02 x 13.39 in)
Seeking to subvert the meanings of existing images, American artist Banks Violette replicates a photograph of the Hungarian-American actor Bela Lugosi, cast in the role of Jesus in a 1909 Easter Passion play. Lugosi would go on to become one of the foremost horror actors in Hollywood, famously playing Count Dracula in 1931 before his tragic decline through addiction. Violette’s appropriation of the portrait explores the darker connotations that lurk beneath images as he conflates the contradictory nature of the actor’s roles with a commentary on the tragic consequences of celebrity in America.
Banks Violette
Not yet titled (dwg09_04), 2008
Graphite on paper
74.9 x 74.9 cm (29.5 x 29.5 in)
In a drawing, a thought must be transformed into something tangible. What you see there is something that doesn't vanish, but rather something that you can look at for hours.
— Georg Baselitz
The skeletal form in this ink drawing appears to roll down a train track, the skulls at either end of the coiled spine acting as wheels. The image stands as an intervention in both the portrait and vanitas genres, demonstrating Georg Baselitz’s distinctive command of art-historical traditions, which he reinvents within his own distinct register. The drawing closely relates to the 2014 sculpture Zero Mobil. Carved from a single tree trunk before being cast in copper, it is suspended in the air, appearing to defy the forces of gravity to evoke the sense of movement also expressed in the drawing.
Georg Baselitz
Untitled, 2013
India ink on paper
66.5 x 51 cm (26.18 x 20.08 in)
In 1982, the eccentric German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder commissioned Andy Warhol to design the poster for his adaptation of the novel Querelle of Brest (1947) by the French author and playwright Jean Genet. Following a young sailor's journey into the sexual underworld of a French port, the narrative appealed to Warhol's interest in both homoerotic imagery and filmmaking, which was a central focus of his artistic practice in the 1960s and 1970s. He created a small number of line drawings alongside the film poster, which were based on Polaroids he took of two young men engaging in playful flirtation, demonstrating the skilled draughtsmanship that underpinned his use of printing technologies and his ability to deftly transfer images across mediums.
Andy Warhol
Querelle, c.1982
Graphite on HMP paper
60.3 x 80.6 cm (23.75 x 31.75 in)
'Parakeets, for me, are a symbol of India as you might see in a lot of Indian art, mythology and literature,' explains Raqib Shaw. 'There's always a rose-ringed parakeet that somehow stands as a symbol of love.' In this work from 2022, a flock of parakeets, native to India but now also commonplace in London, serve as a diasporic reference for the artist who was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) but now lives and works in a converted sausage factory in Peckham, London. He depicts himself dressed in a kimono and Venetian mask, standing atop a stack of artwork crates. Displaying his irreverent sense of humour, he holds his late dog, Mr. C., while brandishing a plunger.
Raqib Shaw
... after all it only turned out to be a Parody of rose-ringed Parakeets, 2022
Acrylic liner, enamel, graphite and watercolour on paper mounted on Dibond
54.3 x 37 cm (21.37 x 14.56 in)
The frame, the cut, that's the very stuff of Alex's work. It's a likeness but it's also a face against the field, a face and space at the same time (a face in space and time).
— American video artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa
Emulating cinematic perspectives through drawing, in this large-scale work Alex Katz demonstrates how modes of representation might be shaped through the dialogues he opens with other mediums, in this instance, film. 'People see my paintings with eyes trained by seeing movies and photographs in magazines,' says Katz. 'I try to use the way these things alter the way people see as a key to the way I construct my paintings.' He splits the composition of this work to offer two representations of his sitter's expression, conveyed through her eyes, to emulate the widescreen format of cinema.
Alex Katz
Purple Split 5, 2022
Charcoal and red chalk on kraft paper
121.9 x 121.9 cm (48 x 48 in)
