A Fine Art Trend
There's a new Houston museum on the drawing board: Meet MOD
William Kentridge
Apama Mackey
David Shrigley, "This is Me"
Worldwide, curators have been nodding more than ever toward the oft-ignored realm of fine art drawings. From the Drawing Fashion exhibition at London's Design Museum and New York's lionized Drawing Center, to the nascent Drawing Institute at the Menil Collection and exhibition of German Impressionist drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the technique has come under a closer eye.
This notion is coming into its own with Houston's new Museum of Drawing, the product of longtime local gallerist Apama Mackey and Alex Bigley. Expect the institution to spin new takes on drawing, its origins and its future in contemporary art.
"We want to bring in more focus on the accessibility of drawing and how it's the beginning of everything," Mackey tells CultureMap. "It's what children do, but what's even more intriguing for us is how the line informs video."
Mackey cites the work of William Kentridge and David Shrigley as inspirations, as they draw upon a nostalgic style of animation with simple drawings. Exhibitions at MOD will trace the evolution of the line and its coming into being as a drawing.
While the museum's focus will be a dialogue with international museums, for the moment Mackey is focussing on building awareness in Houston, starting this Thursday with a Spacetaker Cultured Cocktails fundraising event at Boheme.
"It's so essential for us to reach out and be more community minded," she says, describing the city's connection to the Menil Collection as her muse. "Dominique de Menil established such an amazing community-based support here that they were able to then go out and seek alliances with other institutions.
"I think it starts at home."
Mackey has been an art dealer for close to 14 years. "Every time I was putting on a show, I felt like I wanted to put on a museum exhibition — it wasn't to sell the work," she says.
Rather than strict business, Mackey's more attached to communicating with artists, the transportation of works and "just sharing the show." As a dealer, she was always attracted to artists who were also skilled draftsmen.
"It was a very natural progression for me," she says, but the spark for the MOD was viewing a Max Ernst drawing several years ago. "It was one of those experiences you'll never forget," she recalls, "like somebody kicked you in the back of the knees."
We'll get a more concrete idea plan for the museum in May or June of next year. In the meantime, Mackey & Co. are working on grant writing and solicitations. In terms of the future site, Mackey believes the options are endless, from occupying a warehouse in the vicinity of Fairview and Taft streets to building a new space in the Museum District.
"I'm such a fan of Lawndale, if I could plant myself across from it, I would," she says.
Because a Museum District location facilitates exchange of visitors between different institutions, a Main Street address is most ideal.
"I don't want to make it harder on people," Mackey says, emphasizing MOD's ethos of accessibility. Alex Bigley will be heading up planning and education, masterminding student internships, artist-in-residency programs and everything in between.
Once the ball is rolling and MOD mounts exhibitions of "international drawing rock stars," in Mackey's words, the museum will also reel in some local talent to display.
"I think this city is so vast, and we could use even five more museums," Mackey says. "I love just adding to the mix of it."
View William Kentridge's drawing video, "Automatic Writing," below:
