Although totally different in technique, these two drawings share a similar compositional structureand illustrate how the distortion of space adds to the expressive effect of a work of art.Benton dramatizes his depiction of a raucous political meeting through the use of angulardiagonals marking off the space and directing our attention to the main elements of the scene.La w r e n c e ' s s c e n e is much ca l m er, b u t h e s i m i l a r l y used diagonal lines to pattern the spacein h a b i t e d b y h i s fi g u r es. Thomas Hart Benton Jacob Lawrence (American,(American, 1889-1973) 1917-2000)G.O.P. Convention, Cleveland, Creative Therapy, 19491936 Casein over graphite, 22Pen and brush and black 1/16 x 30 1/16 inchesink and black crayon, withgraphite, 14 11/16 x 2015/16 inches
Made in the same decade and with similar materials, these two sheets show completely differentapproaches to abstraction. Both artists explored the expressive quality of gesture in these works,but the contrast in their vocabulary of forms is striking.Bourgeois used hundreds of small brushstrokes to create a dense, all-over composition suggestiveo f a n a g i t a t e d , t u rbulent lands c a pe. N e w man used two long vertical for m s h e c a l l e d \" z ip s \" to create a sense of classicalbalance in his composition. His two zips play off of each other, the one defining positivespace with black ink, the other negative space left by the white of the paper. Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970)Louise Bourgeois (American, Untitled, 1959born in France, 1911) Brush and black ink, 21Untitled, about 1950 1/16 x 24 1/16 inchesBrush and black ink and graywash, with white paint andtraces of black chalk(?) andblue crayon, 22 x 28 inches
Louise Bourgeois
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