“SENSE: Beuys / Gormley: A conversation through drawing” Exhibition review by Daniel Neofetou

Accompanying Thaddaeus Ropac’s solo extensive exhibition of Joseph Beuys is a second, smaller show curated by Anthony Gormley that places works by both artists in dialogue. (...)

What is most striking about Beuys’s drawing across both exhibitions is its delicate filigree and aesthetic precision. This should be something of a revelation for those familiar only with the artist’s conceptual work, whether in the form of now mythologized performance or aggressively corporeal installation. (...)

Particularly notable are (Gormley's) drawings in black pigment, linseed oil, and charcoal Woman and Architecture, 1985, and Holding the Heart, 1987. These are aesthetically about as far as it is possible to get from the kind of sculpture with which the artist has become synonymous. Rather than imperiously commanding one’s attention, the human figures in these works appear utterly vulnerable, as if they were about to be crushed under overpowering pressure.