Pushing Paper : Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now

This remarkable exploration of drawing as a medium in resurgence unites a global range of contemporary artists.

Subverting its former role as a primarily preparatory medium, drawing is enjoying a resurgence among contemporary artists and students. Pushing paper examines why drawing has not only endured, but continues to thrive as an artistic expression.

56 works, produced between the 1970s and the present day, are used to explore the vital and fundamental nature of drawing. Themes such as place and space, and power and protest, offer new lenses through which to view these major artists.

Supported by the Bridget Riley Art Foundation, this book explores the work of the world’s most important contemporary artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Richard Deacon, Tracey Emin, David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Cornelia Parker, Sol LeWitt, Grayson Perry, Bridget Riley, Imran Qureshi, and Rachel Whiteread, as well as exciting works by new and emerging artists, such as Hamid Sulaiman and Rachel Duckhouse.

Sure to appeal to admirers of drawing, and to artists and students alike, Pushing paper provides an arresting analysis of the status of drawing in the world of contemporary art.

c. 100 illustrations

Isabel Seligman is the Bridget Riley Art Foundation Exhibition Curator at the British Museum. Previous publications include Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now and “Minimalism and conceptualism from the 1970s” in The American Dream: pop to the present, both published by Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the British Museum.