Description
Perhaps no Koren drawings relate as directly to earlier graphic masters of the capriccio—defined in seventeenth-century Italy and France as an art that owes more to the imagination and fantasy of the artist than to the rules of art—as the group of colored-pencil figures that are clearly comici dell’arte. Here the swing of the draftsman’s hand assumes a definite choreographic quality, inspired perhaps by the lighter touch of the pencil as compared with the pen. These figures emerge out of the rhythms of drawing, the constant motion of the marking implement, and they assume those rhythms as part of their own personae.
This group of drawings epitomizes a central aspect of Koren’s graphic art: its total anatomical conviction. However obviously the creations of the drawing act, the figures hang together; their motions conform to natural laws, respond to the balancing requirements of contrapposto. And when these comedians begin their patter, moving on or off stage with vaudevillian ostentation, we follow the pacing and rhythm of their progress with engaged pleasure.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1982
- Dimensions:
- 22 3/4 x 26 3/4 inches (framed)
- Medium:
- Green and blue pencil on BFK Rives paper
- Credit Line:
- Courtsey of the artist