One of the things I’ve noticed is that there’s not an awful lot of focus on pure drawing in the art world here in Los Angeles. I don’t see a lot of it up in galleries, on artwalks, on people’s walls, and so on and so forth. At least not in comparison to painting (especially) or sculpture. That may be a function of my ignorance, not having studied all the aspects of the “scene”. It may also be a more widespread phenomenon than just Los Angeles. Not sure. Anyway, when an exhibition with a drawing focus does come along, I get excited and often go. (The Getty had two big ones in the last couple of years, I should say, focusing on da Vinci (hurrah!) and Rembrandt (hurrah!) and his students on different occasions. But what about contemporary work?)
Well, to my delight I discovered that Saturday had an opening event at Gallery Nucleus with two major highlights for me. The first was that it was focusing on pencil drawing by current artists (Lined in Lead: Works in Graphite), and the second was that Michael Zulli would be there (there were some works of his on display) for the opening. I simply love his work in the graphic novel art world. I’ve no idea if you read graphic novels. Now if you do, and have read the greats you may well know the Sandman series, written by Neil Gaiman. That series broke so much new ground in so many ways, of which much has been said. What has been less talked about is the groundbreaking work on the artistic side. This is due to people like Zulli, who brought the most delicious and enchanting pencils to those pages in some of the best stories, most famously on The Wake, near the end of the series. His pencils survive in the final work, the inking stage having been skipped – a relatively big deal in those days – allowing him to fully shine gloriously in the story. (He also co-created the marvellous character Hob Galding, who first appears in Men of Good Fortune.) Check out Zulli’s website for samples of his work. Have a look at his discussion of a piece he works on showing all the Endless together here, here, and here. You get to see his exquisite pencils right through to finished inked and painted piece.
So all that and who can resist the charms of downtown Alhambra on a Saturday night? So I went along to support the event, looked at the art, enjoyed a lot of it, shook hands and exchanged a few words with Zulli, and generally had a nice evening. Then I returned home and continued the last few days’ work on my own dabblings in the drawing and graphic novel world.
The exhibition is up for a few weeks, so go ahead and check it out if interested!
-cvj
I think artists probably produce loads of drawings but they’re not very profitable and galleries don’t therefore carry them. Works on paper generally sell for much less than paintings on canvas even if they take as much work to produce. Sad. I think the best way to collect drawings is to inquire with artists directly.