CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/14/2015

Drawing People: The Human Figure in Contemporary Art

Philip Guston's "Untitled" (1975) is reproduced from Drawing People: The Human Figure in Contemporary Art, the best contemporary figurative drawing survey of 2015. Of Guston, who made the break from the dominant mode of Abstract Expressionism at the most difficult time possible, author Roger Malbert writes, "For two years, from 1967 to 1968, he abandoned painting and did nothing but draw. He was later to say, ‘I cannot make a dot or a line which doesn’t represent a known thing.’ Thus, one of the most dramatic paradigm shifts in modern art – the return to figuration – was essentially accomplished through drawing." Though Drawing People focuses on figurative drawing of the last decade by artists like Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Peyton and Paul McCarthy, it's nice to remember where it comes from.