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Articles on Drawing

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Henry Darger worked as a hospital custodian. After his death in 1973, hundreds of his illustrations were discovered. Brooklyn Taxidermy/flickr

What is vernacular art? A visual artist explains

The genre – also known as ‘folk art’ or ‘outsider art’ – serves as a reminder that art is a universal human pursuit.
Donald Trump appears in court in New York City, in a courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Donald Trump and the dying art of the courtroom sketch

Whereas ‘the camera sees everything, but captures nothing,’ courtroom artists can channel the emotional highs and lows of a trial through a single image.
Fred Williams Australia 1927-82, worked in England 1952-56. Elephant 1953 cont é crayon 25.2 x 31.8 cm (sheet) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Presented by the Art Foundation of Victoria by Mrs Lyn Williams, Founder Benefactor, 1988 © Estate of Fred Williams

Fred Williams is known for his landscapes. But his drawings are little pockets of explosive expressive energy

Studying in London, the young artist examined the human figure, animals in the zoo and the rich cross-section of theatre life and of life on the streets.
Soldiers used spent shells and casings to make trench art, like this brass bottle opener that was made during World War II. Michael Riordan

America’s hidden world of handmade pornography

One scholar spent a decade studying the ways everyday people drew, carved, glued, sewed and baked their own pornography.
Oliger Merko, ‘Season of Love’ detail, oil on canvas, 2014. Prison Creative Arts Project

What we can learn about isolation from prison artists

In a system that treats people as objects to be counted, chained, searched and assigned a number, art is a way for prisoners to reassert their agency – and reclaim their lives.
Ari Chand

Great time to try: learning to draw

Drawing lets us look outward and inward simultaneously. It doesn’t have to be perfect and practice makes progress. Here are some tips for getting started and drawing inspiration from the familiar.
Moliere Dimanche would use anything he could scrounge up – pieces of folders, the back of commissary forms, old letters – as canvases. Moliere Dimanche

Through his art, a former prisoner diagnoses the systemic sickness of Florida’s penitentiaries

From solitary confinement, Moliere Dimanche started drawing on anything he could find. The result was a series of fantastical, allegorical images that depict abuse, racism and profound isolation.

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