Posture 17: Works on Paper

“Does an artist work differently when the medium is drawing, as opposed to oil painting or sculpture? There is of course the difference of technique and, additionally, the time needed to complete a work on paper is often much shorter than for a painting. Paper and pencil are nevertheless always at hand. Several of the drawings in this publication first appeared in sketch- or notebooks, or exercise books. A wide variety of paper is used. It is striking that many of the drawings were done on paper that appears already to have had a previous life. Mario De Brabandere (b. 1963) once bought a mass of paper from a bankrupt printing firm, a stack that would supposedly last him the rest of his life, but he also likes to work on sheets from old cash registers, on wrapping paper and cheap cardboard. These ‘previous lives’ show through in the final result. The works on paper are rarely ‘clean’; they bear traces of the production process: stains, yellowing edges, erased lines, tears and folds. These traces often make the drawings look older than they are, as if they dated from an earlier age. They have the feel of an old print that has to be conserved with great care.”
From: ‘Works on paper’ Hans Martens, in: Works on Paper