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the organic to the hard-edged. Whether in scrawled graffiti or
looping calligraphy, featuring reduced geometry or recording
movement via mark-making, these works share similar
DEGREE ZERO: conceptual and material concerns that manifested specifically
DRAWING AT MIDCENTURY in the medium.

The Museum of Modern Art
Taking a global approach, the exhibition will feature American
artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Sari Dienes, Ellsworth Kelly,
and Jackson Pollock; European artists including Karel Appel,
Jean Dubuffet, Henri Matisse, and Sonja Sekula; Latin American
The Museum of Modern Art announces Degree Zero: Drawing
artists including Hércules Barsotti, Raúl Milián, Eduardo Ramirez
at Midcentury, an exhibition that will showcase approximately
Villamizar, and Alfredo Volpi; and Asian artists such as Yayoi
100 drawings made between 1948 and 1961 exclusively from
Kusama, Joong Seop Lee, Saburo Murakami, and Morita Yasuji.
the Museum’s collection, on view June 21 through September
Nigerian artist Uche Okeke, whose drawing practice looks
19, 2020. Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury will look across
equally to Igbo tradition and Western modernism, will also
movements, geographies, and generations to highlight
have work featured for the first time since its acquisition by the
connections between diverse artists who embraced drawing
Museum in 2015.
to forge a new visual language in the aftermath of World War II.
Modest, immediate, and direct, drawing - to use a phrase that
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury is organized by Samantha
circulated among artists and writers during these years - was
Friedman, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints.
the ideal “degree zero” medium for this “degree zero” moment.
Within this impulse common to artists from across the world, Karel Appel (Dutch), 1921-2006) Beast, 1956 Ink on paper 9 3/8 x 12 5/8 in
drawing took many forms, from the abstract to the figurative, (23.8 x 32.1 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Joan and Lester
Avnet Collection © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Van Lennep
Producties, Amsterdam

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