Studies in Form

Figure drawing has been a cornerstone of study at the Art Students League since its inception in 1875, serving as a foundation on which generations of artists have learned to observe, analyze, and represent the human form. This exhibition highlights drawings from the League’s permanent collection where the act of observation itself becomes a focus.  

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Showing hands, feet, knees, and wrists from multiple vantage points, these drawings are not only records of the human body but also of the intellectual energy and careful attention demanded by seeing as such. Featuring works by renowned instructors George Bridgman and Robert Ward Johnson, both of whom helped shape the League’s approach to anatomy, they include drawings at different degrees of completion with detailed renderings and abbreviated sketches often appearing on a single page. Taken together, they emphasize the “study” involved in “figure study” and are evidence of the role that anatomical drawing has played at the Art Students League for more than 150 years as a means to understand both the human body and the process of seeing, learning, and making.