Founded by Andrew Hewish in 2004, the Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD) is a non-commercial curatorial space in London, UK, 51°32′44.85″N 0°06′16.12″W / 51.5457917°N 0.1044778°W / 51.5457917; -0.1044778Coordinates: 51°32′44.85″N 0°06′16.12″W / 51.5457917°N 0.1044778°W / 51.5457917; -0.1044778 for the exhibition of recent drawing and providing access and discussion for current drawing practice, and to foster the audience for drawing within the general public.
Since 2004 C4RD has provided a museum space for the exhibition of drawings by established and emerging international and UK artists, illustrators and designers, architects, art therapists, musicians and students in art from various art institutions in Britrain: Royal Academy, Loughborough University, Goldsmiths College, Camberwell College of Arts, London Metropolitan University, Wimbledon School of Art, Royal College of Art and the Prince's Drawing School. It is a non-profit volunteer-run, non-governmental organisation dependent on private donation.
The Centre was established to provide a site in London for the display of drawings free from the commercial concerns that pervade the London art scene and to provide a context for drawing that could also exist beyond the demands of the fine arts. A basic faith in the humanist value of drawing drives the activity of C4RD, hence its emphasis on recent rather than the more commercially regulated 'contemporary'. As a centre it operates as a node of activity between the artist's studio, the art college, the school, therapeutic or architectural practice and the public, to provide experience in exhibition and curatorship, to add focus to a college programme and to share the experience of drawing.
For a discussion on the traditional boundaries and definition of the media see Drawing.
Famous quotes containing the words centre and/or drawing:
“To make our idea of morality centre on forbidden acts is to defile the imagination and to introduce into our judgments of our fellow-men a secret element of gusto.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“In the drawing room [of the Queen’s palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid’s foot between Venus’s thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied “Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)