Visual art can transmit meaning and tell stories. Exploring the multi-valence of narrative in contemporary art, Drawing Conclusions features works on paper by artists such as Larry Day, Marcel Dzama, Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker, and Charles Avery — and includes several new acquisitions to the RISD Museum’s collection of prints, drawings, and photographs.
Visual art—like storytelling—communicates meaning, but rarely does an artwork hold a single meaning. A great pleasure of art is that each viewer brings her or his own experience to a work, often revealing many ways to interpret it.
Drawn from the Museum’s collection of works on paper, this exhibition explores the multivalence of narrative in contemporary art. It presents a diverse collection of works that tell stories, blending the public and personal, the real and fictional. Whether serving as a stage for surreal dreaming or a site to ponder history and identity, each artwork draws on an expanded understanding of narrative and the forms it can take. We invite viewers to draw their own conclusions.
In Charles Avery’s Untitled (Man Gathering Carmine), amidst a barren landscape rendered in dense washes of black ink, a wizened figure harvests a precious pink substance. Since 2004, Charles Avery has created drawings and sculptures depicting a fictional territory called “The Island.” Each of the works expands upon the story of the island’s inhabitants and their customs and beliefs. Imbued with a mixture of seriousness and humor, Avery’s epic series uses the island’s topography as a stage for exploring various philosophical problems, invoking a range of themes from the concept of utopia to globalization.
Drawing Conclusions:Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
RISD Museum
Providence
January 22 –September 25, 2016
Image: Untitled (Man Gathering Carmine), 2012. Graphite, ink, acrylic, and gouache on paper, 57 x 43 cm (22 7/16 x 16 15/16 inches).