Drawings have historically been seen as provisional documents to aid in the preparation of “real” artworks. As a craft, drawing was seen as a foundational skill – a necessity for solving problems in other dimensions and other mediums. Prior to the invention of photography, a hand-held journal and a pencil afforded artists the quickest means to document the world around them. With this in mind, drawing has always been tethered to ideas about how we see the world around us.
Featuring a diverse range of ninety works, Making Shade celebrates the rarely-seen sketches, studies and drawings found in KWAG’s Permanent Collection. Visitors to the exhibition encountered works that aim to capture likeness through traditional means, while others make materiality and experiment the subject. Regardless of style or historical context, the works in Making Shade invite us to consider why artists value the tension that awaits on a blank page.
| Image: Barbara Howard, Remembered Sea, 1959, Conté on paper, 48cm x 62.2cm. Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Collection. Anonymous gift, 1972. © Estate of Barbara Howard. Photo: Courtesy of KWAG. |