One hundred works from the Tate collection, along with key loans from artists such as Sara Barker, Leon Golub, Jasper Johns, Julie Mehretu, Matthew Monahan, Richard Tuttle and Hannah Wilke, are on view at the Tate Museum in Liverpool.

The museum aims to follow the trajectory of “drawing as a catalyst and vehicle for change in modern and contemporary art”. The exhibition can be visited until January 20, 2013.

1. JOSEPH BEUYS. Pregnant Woman with Swan, 1959. / 2. MARLENE DUMAS.Magdalena 3, 1996.

The display focuses on drawings of the human body and raises the debate between figuration and abstraction in the 20th century. “Rather than approaching abstraction and figuration separately, the exhibition will integrate these genres to explore the continuous slippage between the two.”

Tracing the Century features a number of works presented at Tate for the first time since their acquisition, such as William Orpen’s meticulously detailed representations of the human figure Anatomical Studies, which was used by students of anatomy during the early part of the century. ■

PHOTOS
Pregnant Woman with Swan.