Defining Drawing: Past, Present, and Future

Introduction
- Continuous Incompleteness: The concept of drawing is complex, prompting an ongoing debate reflecting diverse materials and processes.
- Range of Perspectives: Drawing can encompass various forms like pencil on paper, performance, conversations, and symbolic traces like contrails from jets.
- Agreement on Diversity: All perspectives on drawing are valid; reframing the question allows for exploration beyond physicality into content and intent.
Key Points
- Mutability of Drawing: Drawing is not static or singular; it evolves with new forms, technologies, and conceptual attitudes.
- Cultural Exclusions: The definition of drawing often overlooks cultural applications like Maori tattooing or Chinese calligraphy, but acknowledges interrelations with disciplines like Archaeology and Physics.
- Parameters for Discussion: Definitions must be narrowed to focus on a multifaceted activity that challenges conventional boundaries.

Extrapolated Questions
- Drawing's Past: Are there traits specific to drawing and why?
- Current State of Drawing: What is currently being done in drawing and why?
Temporal Framework
- Drawing is both a present action and a trace of past gestures.
- The term 'drawing' functions as both noun (completed object) and verb (ongoing action).
- Historical Re-examination: Drawing, traditionally seen as preparatory work, is redefined as a primary medium in contemporary discourse.

Secondary Status Historically:
- Drawing was historically seen as a preparatory step for other artistic forms like painting and sculpture, as noted by Jean Fisher.
- Functionality of Drawing: Characterized as anticipatory, serving to resolve issues for later works rather than being an end in itself.
- Art Institutions' Influence: Art schools historically taught drawing as a subsidiary skill, valuing technical ability tied to natural depiction.
- Objective Standards: An objective value system for drawing, tied to historical conventions, was maintained by art academies.
Influential Texts and Figures:
- John Ruskin: The Elements of Drawing establishes technical drawing standards (1857).
- Henry Tonks: Developed a twelve-point definition of drawing technique in Elementary Propositions in Drawing and Painting (1910).
- Practical Exercises: Emphasis on observational drawing from nature and plaster casts, solidifying a conservative, representational view of drawing.

Evolving Perspectives Since Modernism:
- With Modernism, drawing began to be investigated as an independent discipline amidst changing attitudes regarding creativity and representation.
- Contemporary Misconceptions:
- Misconception that there exists a singular form of ‘good drawing’.
- Historical misunderstanding that all past drawings adhered to strict ‘good’ standards.
- Artists' Views: Artist Michael Craig-Martin noted the diverse uses of line in drawing spanning different time periods and cultures.
Concept of Invention in Drawing:
- Barbara Rose's Argument: Drawing is rooted in intellectual invention, not only technique; historical predecessors equate drawing with the creation of ideas.
- Example of Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. and Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased De Kooning Drawing demonstrate drawing's conceptual potential.
- Contemporary Works: Rose's emphasis on process-based drawing and the notion of ‘autographic’ drawing (self-revelatory, personal communication).

Post-1990s Resurgence:
- Drawing has gained renewed recognition and activity both nationally and internationally.
- Key considerations surrounding this revival include its rediscovery and its relevance in critiques drawn from other disciplines like Music and Science.
The Role of Digital Media:
- Drawing is celebrated as a manual counteraction to digital processes, emphasizing its physicality and uniqueness.
- Artistic value is found in traditional methods, contrasting with the fast-paced, reproducible digital art environment.
Democratic Nature of Drawing:
- Drawing’s interdisciplinary flexibility allows engagement across varied fields and contexts.
- As representational aims diminish, drawing becomes a more universally accessible medium.
Market Factors Impacting Drawing:
- Renewed market interest in drawing attributed to its affordability and adaptability in exhibition contexts like the international art fairs in the 1990s.
- Drawing viewed as a ‘stopgap’ art medium, highlighting its role amid economic shifts in the art world.

Contemporary Challenges: Is the rise of drawing part of a medium fetishization?
- Questions about the specificity of drawing content and its thematic connections must be continually assessed.
Norman Bryson on Drawing:
- Describing drawing as a practice existing in continuous present-tense, it embodies a state of becoming that never reaches closure, linking process with conceptual development.