Untitled, (back) by Joseph Mann
- Title: Untitled, (back)
- Artist: Joseph Mann
- Medium: Graphite
- Size: 7"h x 5"w
- Added to collection: 2019
- Donor: Gift of Mark Andres
- Campus: Rock Creek
- Location: B3/2 Drawing gallery rm 228
One can learn to read a drawing by paying close attention to the decisions made by the artist's hand at each form. Observe how the back of the neck and the shoulder muscles are more forcefully contoured than the shoulders themselves. This not only charges the drawing with a sense of volume and palpability, but shows an awareness of how perception of forms in the periphery differ from those in direct vision. The side of the face is boldly delineated but the top of the head vanishes into a mist. Sleepier artists would delineate these things mechanically and equally to give the drawing a more conventionally finished look, but they would flatten it in the process. Put another way, this drawing feels less like a description of a woman's back than the experience of looking at a woman's back. Mann, who has taught drawing and painting for many years, once memorably told his students: "If you do not approach the model with humility, you will be humbled."