Matthew Marks Gallery

From 1962 to 1981 Brice Marden explored the underlying geometries of the rectangle with a number of sumptuous drawings in graphite and beeswax. Brice Marden: Graphite Drawings is the first in-depth study of these seminal works on paper. In his essay, Paul Galvez traces the tensions — between inside and outside, texture and form, gesture and erasure — that these drawings sustain. But their greatest accomplishment, Galvez argues, may be their inversion of the familiar dualism between drawing and painting; with his unique handling of materials and his rigorous attention to the plane, Marden introduced painting into drawing.

The book includes an extensive catalogue entry for each of the twenty-five featured drawings, detailing its materials, exhibition history, literature, and the circumstances in which it was made. Generously illustrated, the book also includes a 1976 studio interview with Marden, which is published here for the first time.