The Art of Drawing 1998

Bo Bartlett's painting presents us with a modern tableau of creation and contemplation. The seated boy, diligently tracing lines on a canvas, embodies the act of artistic creation. In contrast, we see the figure of the woman, positioned as a passive observer. The act of drawing itself carries symbolic weight. In ancient times, the ability to represent reality through lines was seen as almost magical, a way to capture and preserve life, as we see in Egyptian hieroglyphs or early cave paintings. Here, the boy's focused gaze mirrors the intense concentration found in portraits of artists throughout history, from Renaissance masters to self-portraits by Van Gogh. The act of artistic creation is not static; it reverberates across time, continuously evolving and adapting. By observing the act of drawing in the context of a domestic scene, Bartlett seems to question the boundary between art and life, and the role each has in informing the other.