A Drawing is a Picture

Abstract

Starting from the statement "a drawing is a picture”, we aim to reflect on the status of the image in which distinct drawings belong as visual displays. More than find a drawing definition or a delimitation of its boundaries, we propose the formulation of drawn images as an operational concept to focus on what seems to be the primary vocation of this discipline: its representational nature. It is this nature — of a picture that depicts, describes, denotes, as well as other forms of reference that we can consider — that puts drawing as a discipline that crosses several domains of knowledge and culture, from the arts to the sciences, from graphic languages to visual communication, from the popular to the erudite. Therefore, we take the relationship between drawing and representation as the common denominator on the role that pictures play in research areas, in project practices and the diverse forms of visualisation or, generally, in any display of figuration. In this sense, the concept of figure becomes absolutely central and crucial to understanding the ontological connection between drawing and representation, as well as to inquire its roots to an image genealogy. Finally, the correspondence that appears to exist between figure and likeness embraces old puzzles and persistent problems which turn even more diffuse borders between the interdependent, but distinct concepts of figure, representation and image, essential to the ideas about a categorization of drawing.