BMA Presents On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection

An intimate selection of drawings reveals varied approaches to the human form

BALTIMORE, MD (February 28, 2014)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is pleased to announce On Paper: Figure Drawings from the Benesch Collection,on view April 20 through September 14, 2014. The exhibition features a selection of 10 drawings created in the 1960s and 70s by contemporary masters such as David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Revealing there are as many approaches to the human figure as there are artists, some of the works have a very realistic and literal approach to the figure; others are more abstract compositions where the figure is a point of departure. In addition to Hockney, de Kooning, and Rauschenberg, other artists featured include Nancy Grossman, Philip Grausman, Elmer Bischoff, R.B. Kitaj, Peter Blake, Reg Butler, and Eduardo Paolozzi.

On Paper will be presented in the revitalized contemporary wing’s third-floor gallery dedicated to the presentation of the BMA’s renowned holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs. This is the second exhibition from the Museum’s Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection, a group of more than 140 outstanding drawings by international contemporary artists.

BMA Contemporary Wing

The BMA’s recently renovated contemporary wing features more than 100 objects—including paintings, sculpture, photography, works on paper, and video—presented thematically in galleries improved with state-of-the art lighting and new interiors. The contemporary wing, which opened in 1994, houses a significant collection of American art from the last six decades with major late paintings by Andy Warhol, as well as works by Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Glenn Ligon, Bruce Nauman, and Anne Truitt. The museum also holds an outstanding group of works by influential international artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Franz West, and artists whose work makes a profound social statement, including General Idea, Zoe Leonard, Josephine Meckseper, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Two new interactive galleries, The Big Table and Open Studio, encourage visitors to create, share, and connect with contemporary art, ideas, and artists. The first mobile art guide for the collection, BMA Go Mobile, includes fresh perspectives on more than 100 objects in the contemporary collection, as well as exclusive video and audio commentary by artists, curators, and others in Baltimore’s creative community.