Charles Le Bruntsquo;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 squo;s work, Le Bruncsquo;s manual is set to a different direction dash;a series of abstract drawings recalling vestiges of the human face animated by emotion. But Schutterysquo;s drawings are neither copies nor portraiture. Rather, they are reflections on how Lebrunssquo;s renderings were made.
Collected here, Schutterpsquo;s work recreates not the subject matter but the very values of Lebrun squo;s drawings dash;light, gesture, scale, and handling of materials. The cross-hatching in the original was used to make classical tone and volume, in Schutterasquo;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;dash;unlike their academic source materialpdash;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.
