Rachel Whiteread - Drawings - TATE BRITAIN 8 Sept 2010 - 16 January 2011

  "My drawings are a diary of my work" Rachel Whiteread


Untitled..Double Mattress Yellow (1991) by Rachel Whiteread

This is the first museum retrospective of Rachel Whiteread drawings. Again drawing invites the viewer to see a private realm of the artist's thoughts.

This exhibition is comprised by drawings on paper, collages and a collection of objects.

The drawings reminds me to the drawings of a  draughtsman. Sensitive lines and loose spontaneity are traced on coloured graph paper and tracing paper. For the artist the nature of the paper are very much part of the drawing

itself. 

All of them has a very plain and minimalist feel, there are not vibrant colours, instead there are some touches of soft colours acrylic paint, correction fluid, ink and resin skilfully applied to them.

These drawings of tables, chairs, floors, beds and mattresses, baths and slabs, houses, rooms, stairs, doors, windows and switches, torsos and heads makes me reflect in the artist interest or inspiration from quotidian things used by us human beings, elements of our everyday life that we usually take by granted.

Looking at her drawings makes you think in her sculptures, these studies or thoughts are as sculptural as their sculptures are graphic. Her drawings impart tremendous skill and sensitivity.

I see the artist as a collector of images. Approaches as collage, old postcards, found objects seem to be an important part of the artist's creative process.

I have choose to see her work because it is very different to what I do. From my own point of view her work is almost too cold and structural. It is very minimalist and secretive, it doesn't give much away, and I think this is what I like about Whiteread's work. There is no text in her work, there is not a necessity to explain anything. I sometimes felt confronted by these drawings, they were almost too clever and confident.

I felt that perhaps I should not draw in such a figurative way and maybe I should be more abstract when drawing on paper. I feel that in my work I give to many clues to the viewer, I'm not sure whether the use of text or better said "too descriptive" text makes my work boring or not engaging enough.


Study for "Village"-1st, 2004
Ink, pencil, and collage on paper
(29.9 x 41.1 cm)






Some of the artist's objects collection