The human figure

For many, mastery in drawing is the proficient and realistic representation of the human figure. It seems to me though that this is really just the beginning of mastery. Look at what the masters themselves were after. For Leonardo figure drawing was the investigation of the functioning of the human machine. For Michaelangelo it was the struggle of the human spirit to escape its bondage in flesh. For Pontormo it was the human figure dancing in its own materiality. For Kollwitz it was the burden of the weight of human sadness. For Lasansky it was the loss of humanity in the midst of its own brutality. For Kentridge its human failure and human hope.

Figure drawing at its best does not simply represent the figure, but acknowledges that the artist is figure too, in its flesh, in its living presence and in its humanity.