Contemporary Australian Drawing

Scotland-based Dr Janet McKenzie, long-term deputy editor of the renowned art journal Studio International, first published on Australian drawing with Macmillan back in 1986. Twenty-one years later she met Dr Irene Barberis, an Australian artist who was in the UK representing Metasenta, an international arts research organisation focused on drawing and based at Melbournes RMIT University. Dr Christopher Heathcote's contribution also focuses on the teaching of drawing in Australia. Janet McKenzie visited Australia in 2008 to update her research and exercise a global perspective on the current state of drawing in this country. Her book introduces works by 78 selected artists from across the country. They include prominent figures such as Peter Booth, Allan Mitelman, John Olsen, Mirka Mora, Mike Parr, Kevin Lincoln, Jenny Watson, Jan Senbergs and Wendy Stavrianos, among many others. Recognition of the importance of drawing has sometimes wavered in recent times, but most artists would agree that drawing, in whatever medium and however it is executed, is an essential process in the development of ideas leading to creative outcomes. Often, as art history suggests and this book demonstrates, drawing can be an art in and of itself. This timely account of the art of drawing in Australia is lavishly illustrated and will have wide appeal.