The Escape
From a Seventeenth-Century Drawing Manual of the Face and Its Expressions
9780226461199
The Escape
From a Seventeenth-Century Drawing Manual of the Face and Its Expressions
Charles Le Brun’s drawing manual on human emotions has been used for centuries by artists and students as a model for depicting facial expressions. In David Schutter’s work, Le Brun’s manual is set to a different direction—a series of abstract drawings recalling vestiges of the human face animated by emotion. But Schutter’s drawings are neither copies nor portraiture. Rather, they are reflections on how Lebrun’s renderings were made.
Collected here, Schutter’s work recreates not the subject matter but the very values of Lebrun’s drawings—light, gesture, scale, and handling of materials. The cross-hatching in the original was used to make classical tone and volume, in Schutter’s hand the technique makes for unstable impressions of strained neck and deeply furrowed brow, or for drawing marks and scribbles unto themselves. As such, these drawings end up denying a neat closure—unlike their academic source material—and render unsettling states of mind that require repeated viewing. Accompanied by essays from art critic Barry Schwabsky and Neubauer Collegium curator Dieter Roelstraete, The Escape will appeal to students, critics, and admirers of seventeenth-century, modern, and contemporary art alike.
Collected here, Schutter’s work recreates not the subject matter but the very values of Lebrun’s drawings—light, gesture, scale, and handling of materials. The cross-hatching in the original was used to make classical tone and volume, in Schutter’s hand the technique makes for unstable impressions of strained neck and deeply furrowed brow, or for drawing marks and scribbles unto themselves. As such, these drawings end up denying a neat closure—unlike their academic source material—and render unsettling states of mind that require repeated viewing. Accompanied by essays from art critic Barry Schwabsky and Neubauer Collegium curator Dieter Roelstraete, The Escape will appeal to students, critics, and admirers of seventeenth-century, modern, and contemporary art alike.
136 pages | 69 color plates | 8-1/2 x 11 | © 2021
Art: American Art, Art Criticism, Art--General Studies, European Art
Table of Contents
The Escape / David Schutter
L LB dc 1–45 / David Schutter
Memory as Initiation: David Schutter’s Critique of Expression / Barry Schwabsky
Schutter’s Seeing Ways / Dieter Roelstraete
Selected Drawings from L’expression des passions / Charles Le Brun
L LB dc 1–45 / David Schutter
Memory as Initiation: David Schutter’s Critique of Expression / Barry Schwabsky
Schutter’s Seeing Ways / Dieter Roelstraete
Selected Drawings from L’expression des passions / Charles Le Brun
Be the first to know
Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!