Books about contemporary drawing

When starting my research on contemporary drawing for Drawing & Notes in 2008, a couple of books were (and are still) of much use. All these books were beautiful sources of inspiration and will be a good start to discover the varied world of contemporary drawing. Beneath you will find a couple of my favorites, but a more complete list (updated regularly) can be found on my list Books on Contemporary Drawing.

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Vitamin D
(Phaidon, 2007) Probably the most influential and inspiring compendium of contemporary drawing. It shows the work of 109 artists, using a wide variety of styles, from representational to abstract. Along with the descriptions by the curators who picked the artists for the book, it was a very rich well for this weblog.


Compass in Hand. Selections From The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection
(The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2009). This book was published to accompany a major 2009 exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art of the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection.


Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing
(Phaidon, 2013)

Contemporary Drawing: From the 1960s to Now
(Katherine Stout, 2015)


Drawing Now: Eight Propositions
(Laura Hoptman, Museum of Modern Art, 2002)

Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing 
(Ana Ibarra and Marc Valli, 2013)


Drawing People: The Human Figure in Contemporary Art (Roger Malbert, Thames & Hudson, 2015)


Drawing from The Modern, Volume I: 1880-1940


Drawing from The Modern, Volume 2: 1945-1975


Marcel Dzama: Sower of Discord (2013) is a beautiful monograph about Marcel Dzama's work. Lavishly illustrated and with a foreword by Raymond Pettibon, three original short stories inspired by Dzama’s work by Dave Eggers, an essay by the art historian Bradley Bailey, and an interview with Dzama by the filmmaker Spike Jonze. [Even more books here]


Nedko Solakov: 99 Fears


Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper


fukt magazine

Marijn van Kreij

Marijn van Kreij 

Untitled (Picasso, Reclining Nude with a Man Playing the Guitar, 1970), 2016 [detail]

Gouache and pencil on paper

192 x 151

Marijn van Kreij. Reclining Nude with a Man Playing the Guitar

24 November 2016 - 28 May 2017

Hermitage, Amsterdam

Marijn van Kreij 

Untitled (Picasso, Reclining Nude with a Man Playing the Guitar, 1970), 2016

Gouache and pencil on paper

192 x 151

Marijn van Kreij 

Untitled (Picasso, Nude in front of a Garden, 1956), 2013

Gouache and pencil on paper

206 x 152.5 cm

Marijn van Kreij 

Untitled (Picasso, Nude in front of a Garden, 1956), 2013 [detail]

Gouache and pencil on paper

206 x 152.5 cm

Navid Nuur

Navid Nuur 
99-96 (from the Eyecodex of the Monochrome), 1988-2017
reflecting sheet, green emulsion, aluminium, light
190 x 270 x 4 cm

Navid Nuur. A&N&D
27 January – 4 March 2017
Galerie Max Hetzer, Berlin

Nour-Eddine Jarram

Nour-Eddine Jarram 

Candy Girl, 2016

watercolour on paper

30 x 21 cm

Nour-Eddine Jarram. Push The Button
paintings, works on paper
8 January – 5 February 2017

Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag

Nour-Eddine Jarram 

La Dance Macabre, 2016

watercolour on paper

50 x 65 cm