Minimal and Conceptual drawings from the 1960s and 1970s acquired by the foundation from New York-based collectors Eileen and Michael Cohen are juxtaposed with major works by self-taught artists including James Castle, Henry Darger, Ele D'Artagnan and Pearl Blauvelt, representing a diverse anthology of works on paper. Additional highlights, both contemporary and historic, include works by Tomma Abts, Kai Althoff, Robert Crumb, Tacita Dean, Peter Doig, Angus Fairhurst, Mark Grotjahn, Richard Hamilton, Eva Hesse, Charline von Heyl, Christian Holstad, Roni Horn, Ellsworth Kelly, Martin Kippenberger, Roy Lichtenstein, Sherrie Levine, Lee Lozano, Agnes Martin, Cady Noland, Jennifer Pastor, Elizabeth Peyton, Adrian Piper, Paul Thek, Richard Wright and Andrea Zittel. Reminiscent of the classic 2002 MoMA catalogue Drawing Now and published to accompany a major 2009 exhibition at The Museum, this volume brings together approximately 250 representative works.

The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2005, is an extraordinary collection of over 2,500 works on paper. Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection presents more than 300 of these works in an exhibition that examines the back-and-forth conversations of styles,methods, and emotional temperature that take place between works,artists, and generations.

Following the precedents set by other important drawings exhibitions at MoMA, including Drawing Now, organized by Bernice Rose in 1976, and Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, organized by Laura Hoptman in 2002, Compass in Hand chronicles the state of the medium at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and at this particular point in time the view is panoramic: from early works by singular figures such as Lee Bontecou and Joseph Beuys to recent installations by Nate Lowman and Jan Mancuska, and from Minimalist and Conceptual works by Donald Judd and Hanne Darboven to detailed narrative drawings by Elizabeth Peyton and John Currin.The exhibition also includes a significant number of works that employ the principles of collage, assemblage, appropriation, and montage,stretching even further the boundaries of what constitutes a drawing,by artists such as Sherrie Levine, Cady Noland, Kelley Walker,Thomas Hirschhorn, and Amelie yon Wulffen.

Compass in Hand speaks first and foremost of the vitality of drawing today, and attests to the singular attention, innovation, and depth that artists bring to the medium.

Foreword

Glenn D. Lowry

Acknowledgments

Cornelia Butler

Compass in Hand:Assessing Drawing Now

Christian Rattemeyer

Harvey S. Shipley Millter and Gary Garrels

Interviewed by Cornelia Butler and Christian Rattemeyer

P[ates

Index

Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art