"A line is a trace of a life lived, a thought remembered, and a future imagined."

Drawing is the most elemental act in art. Long before an idea becomes a painting, sculpture,
installation, or performance, it often first emerges as a mark on paper—a line searching for form.
Foundational works of drawing are often where the most intimate moments with an artist begin,
offering a unique window into their minds where subjects are depicted out of instinct rather than
obligation.

In celebration of drawing, Shin Gallery is pleased to announce The Enduring Line, a collaborative,
thought-provoking exhibition on view from August 1st to September 26, 2026. Presenting works by
artists whose approaches to drawing are as diverse as their histories, this exhibition brings the
physical emergence of ideas to the forefront of the artistic conversation. From the incisive
observations of Honoré Daumier to the lyrical abstractions of Arshile Gorky and Cy Twombly, from
the profound humanism of Ernest Mancoba to the deeply personal narratives of Marisol and
Kippenberger, the exhibition reveals drawing as both a tool of discovery and an autonomous art form.

Rather than tracing a linear history, the exhibition proposes a conversation across generations and
mediums. Each work demonstrates how artists have used drawing to observe the world, record
memory, test ideas, and give form to emotions that often resist language. Whether meticulously
rendered or radically spontaneous, these drawings share a common quality: they preserve the
immediacy of thought itself. A drawn line is among the closest traces we possess of an artist's
presence—a gesture that collapses time and allows us to encounter another mind across centuries.
Drawing remains not only the foundation of artistic practice but one of humanity's most enduring
forms of expression.

Encountering an artist through drawing reveals vulnerabilities distinct from those of a finished piece,
as the artist's essence seeps through even the simplest lines, whether it be pencil, ink, or wax crayon.
The exhibition seeks to dwell in this openness: François Boucher’s rich painting style emerges in his
undulating and evocative linework sketch prepared for an eventual oil painting Death of Meleager,
while Gerda Wegener, often celebrated for her luminous and progressive depictions of women,
brings vitality to a rare male subject of red chalk in Portrait of a Smiling Man, with delicate white
highlights catching a twinkle in his eyes.

An untitled drawing by Arshile Gorky carries an exceptional history, linking its artistic significance to
both the artist’s postwar practice and the discerning eye of Dominique de Menil. Gifted by de Menil
to her daughter Marie Christophe de Menil and inscribed, “The best one I could find,” the work
reflects the deeply personal and intellectually rigorous approach to collecting that defined the de
Menils.

Created in the aftermath of the devastating 1946 fire that destroyed many of Gorky’s paintings and
drawings, the work resonates with the spectral, biomorphic language of his Charred Beloved series,
transforming themes of loss, memory, trauma, and regeneration into an intimate exploration of line
and form. Together, its distinguished provenance, exhibition history, and profound connection to
Gorky’s mature practice establish the drawing as a particularly meaningful example of the artist’s
work on paper and a testament to Dominique de Menil’s extraordinary vision as a collector and
patron.

The Amazonian drawings from the private collection of anthropologist Dr. Nairo Garcia Pinheiro also
bring an additional dimension to the exhibition, representing some of the earliest known instances
of Native Amazonian peoples producing works on paper using introduced art materials. Unbound by
any previous conventions of drawing, these works from uncontacted and semi-contacted tribes
authentically portray a visual language formed through instinct and cosmological meaning—one that
reveals the lived experience of the tribes who subscribe to an animistic worldview in which all beings
and elements of the natural world are interconnected. These Indigenous drawings enter into a
conversation with other Western works in the exhibition, a testament to the fact that the impulse to
make meaning through line and physical marks is a fundamentally human act.

Although not currently on display, a fantastic double sided sheet by Paul Gauguin will join the
exhibition in September. The work, a page from the visitors' book of the Pension Gloanec, the
legendary inn where the Pont-Aven School convened, has remained within the innkeeper's own
family for generations, and is only now surfacing after more than a century.

The insight of an artist’s mind flows through the hand onto a physical surface, leaving eternal
evidence of their existence. The Enduring Line invites viewers to bask in the raw and unapologetic
spirit emanating from each palpable mark of an artist.

List of artists: Arshile Gorky, André Masson, Man Ray, Honoré Daumier, Keunmin Lee, Marisol, Martin
Kippenberger, Georg Baselitz, Congo, Hans Bellmer, Elaine de Kooning, James Castle, Harold Anchel,
Ernest Mancoba, George Biddle, François Boucher, Claes Oldenburg, J. F. Willumsen, Zoran
Mušič, Charles Biederman, Achraf Touloub, Wayne Nowack, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Victor Brauner,
Cy Twombly, Else Alfelt, Joan Collette, Gopal Ghose, Henry Moore, Gerda Wegener, Henry Scott Tuke,
Karl Lagerfeld, Alannah Farrell, Otavio Schipper, Frederick H. Evans, Indigenous Amazonian artists,
Pearl Blauvelt, Melvin Way, Choong Sup Lim, Nate Plotkin, Keith Haring, Amir Nave, Benni Efrat