Living artist Jim Dine is best known for his Pop Art work and involvement with Happenings back in the 1960s. The National Gallery of Art exhibited his drawings five years ago, but that doesn't mean many people consider him a great draughtsman. But the Morgan Library has the (dubious?) honor of receiving 40 of his drawings known as The Glyptotek Drawings that were created between 1987-88. The series was inspired by Greek and Roman sculpture, primarily from the Glyptotek Museum in Munich and doesn't resemble much of the work for which Dine is famous.
According to a press release sent around today:
"The works combine a rich variety of media, including ink, charcoal, crayon, and paint, applied in broad gestures, resulting in a distinctive, expressive style. Occasionally the artist rubbed and spread the material with an eraser or with his fingers. The subjects include ancient busts, full-length sculptures, statuettes, fragments, and reliefs. Some, such as the 'Barberini Faun,' the 'Boy with a Goose' and the 'Wounded Trojan from the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina' are well known."
But not everyone is such a fan. One critique of the NGA show included:
"They [The Glyptotek Drawings] are drawings of classical objects from the sort of museum where I would expect stiff waistcoats to be en vogue. The drawings, presented in a cavernous room in the NGA's West Building, would look fine in an art student's portfolio... Dine is a safe, serviceable artist, exactly the sort of fellow toward whom a living-artist-adverse institution would gravitate. Dine is the first living artist in almost two years to receive an NGA show."
Ouch. We wonder if that's why they also found a home at the Morgan, the sort of place where you also don't expect to see anything too unusual, edgy or from many living artists. But Dine will be 74 this year, so maybe he's expecting to join the pantheon of the greats soon enough.
Image info: Jim Dine, The Glyptotek Drawings, 1987-88, charcoal on Mylar. 17 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (45 x 39.4 cm). Promised Gift of the artist to The Morgan Library & Museum. Photograph courtesy of PaceWildenstein.
