This event was part of On Drawings 2024 programming
Rachel Federman, art historian, writer, and curator; Lindsey Tyne, Conservation Librarian at New York University Libraries, Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department; and Annabel Daou, artist and adjunct association in the art history department, Barnard College. With a discussion moderated by Lisa Conte, Assistant Professor of Paper Conservation and Co-Chair of the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts.
Beyond Boundaries will offer three perspectives on the question “what IS a drawing?”. Curator Rachel Federman, conservator Lindsey Tyne, and artist and professor Annabel Daou will offer perspectives on the myriad types of objects and practices that fall under the category of “drawings.” Moving beyond traditional approaches like ink on paper, this discussion will focus on drawing as experimentation in the broadest sense; we will consider works that incorporate unconventional mediums such as natural elements (e.g., ash or tar), bodily fluids, and familiar materials used in novel ways. We will examine the attendant conservation challenges posed by these materials, while reframing drawing not just as a preparatory process, but also as both a performance and an autonomous object of value.
Rachel Federman is an art historian, writer, and curator. She has curated solo exhibitions of Bruce Conner, Maurice Sendak, Bridget Riley, and the previously unknown Beat-era draftsman Rick Barton. Her current curatorial project is “Helène Aylon: Undercurrent,” at Princeton University. It is the first solo museum exhibition of the American ecofeminist artist in almost fifty years. Federman has published essays on Bruce Conner, Jean Conner, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul McCarthy, Allen Ruppersberg, and Betye Saar, among others. She is currently writing a biography of the pioneering American artist and art dealer Betty Parsons. Federman holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Lindsey Tyne is the Conservation Librarian at New York University Libraries where she leads the Special Collections Conservation Unit in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department. Lindsey holds an M.A. in Art History and an Advanced Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she is currently an adjunct faculty member. She holds a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute. Prior to her current position, Lindsey was the Associate Paper Conservator in the Thaw Conservation Center at The Morgan Library & Museum (2010-2022) and held roles in conservation departments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Her research focuses on the materials and techniques of modern and contemporary artists and the close examination of works on paper. She has published on Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine, Lucas Samaras, Jean Dubuffet, and Al Taylor, as well as developed lectures and seminars on techniques used to examine works on paper. Lindsey is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation.
Annabel Daou’s work takes form in paper-based constructions, sound, performance, and video. Daou suspends, carves out or records the language of daily life: from the ordinary or mundane to the intimately personal and urgently political. In her performance work she explores questions of trust, intimacy, cross-cultural exchange, and the operations of power. Her work frequently evokes moments of rupture and chaos but with the tenuous possibility for repair. Daou was born and raised in Beirut and lives in New York. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including at The National Museum of Beirut; The Park Avenue Armory, New York; KW, Berlin; The Drawing Room, London; and The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Public collections include The Morgan Library; The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; The Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul; the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita; and The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Recent solo exhibitions include what is left of us at signs and symbols, New York, War Games at Galerie Tanja Wagner, DECLARATION at Ulrich Museum of Art, Global Spotlight: Annabel Daou at Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington. Recent residencies include the Pollock-Krasner award at ISCP in New York and Haus Des Papiers in Berlin. A monograph of her work will be published by Distanz Publishing Berlin in 2024. Daou was co-founder of collaborative groups dBfoundation, S2A, and The Lobby, temporary public exhibitions in Brooklyn building lobbies. FORTUNE, her ongoing silent fortune-telling project, has taken place in numerous institutional and non-institutional contexts including PS1 MoMA, White Box, and the Global Art Forum, Dubai.
Lisa Conte is Assistant Professor of Paper Conservation and Co-Chair of the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Presented in partnership with the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Image: Helène Aylon (1931-2020), Melting Bricks 9 (detail), 2014, Mixed media on paper, 18-15/16 x 26-1/16 inches (sheet). Courtesy of the Estate of Helène Aylon and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects.
