This will be the fourth year for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, last year there were over 2,400 entries of which 73 were selected for the final exhibition. To quote one of last year’s judges, painter Ken Currie, “Drawing continues to flourish as an indispensable tool in the perpetual re-invention of our technologically based society. So how ironic it is then, that in spite of this, drawing appears to be floundering in the very places one would expect it to be pursued most intensely – the fine art departments of our art schools. Up and down the UK there appears to be a decline in the status of drawing within the disciplines of Fine Art and a diminishing of its importance in the education of artists. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming – serious drawing is being neglected in favour of the easy fixes of new media.

Despite this, the Jerwood Drawing Prize is evidence that the medium endures in importance to a broad range of artists. Drawing is a fundamental, primordial human activity of central importance to our society in countless different ways. I hope as many artists as possible continue to draw and to draw well and communicate new observations about the human predicament”.

Image: © Sarah Woodfine. Wyoming