Portrait Drawing Round Robin
Collaborative Drawing Projects Organized by Peter Walsh
Ongoing (2009-Present)
What's a "Portrait Drawing Round Robin"?
The Round Robins create a unique kind of group portraiture that turns the traditional power relationships of portraiture on their head. Participants create portrait drawings of each other and construct a wall sized portrait “matrix” of the completed drawings. Lots of things go on in this process and the completed grids can be mesmerizing.
The Portrait Drawing Round Robin form was created by artist Peter Walsh in 2009.
How Does it Work?
Step One: Each participant exchanges portraits with a partner seated across a long communal table. First one participant draws their partner, then the other. As the bell rings, they move one seat over at the table, greet a new partner and do another set of timed portraits.
Step Two: When the round robin is completed, participants create a wall-sized grid: portraits of the participants horizontally, portraits by them vertically. Self-portraits fall in a diagonal line from the upper left to the lower right.
Step Three: Participants discuss the completed drawings and the process of exchanging portraits, evaluating the multiplicity of values created. Does a likeness of an individual emerge in a series of portraits by many hands? Is one drawing better than another or do they work best as a group? How is the drawing exchange different than the system of one artist drawing one model?
Participants exchanging Portraits at City Without Walls (cWOW) Gallery, Newark, New Jersey, 2010.
Hanging several portrait grids at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2018.
Portrait Grid at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2013.
Evaluating the portraits at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, 2011.
Round Robin Participants at the University of Trash at Sculpture Center, Queens, New York, 2009.
Drawing at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2013.
Thanks!
My thanks go out first and foremost to all the round robin artists for working so hard to make this experiment work. Special thanks go out to Ed Monovich at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design for inviting me to run various round robins as part of his drawing class and for continuing the process many times in addition. Jed Dodds at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore was a pleasure to work with. Thanks Jed! Many thanks to Max Goldfarb of the Incident Report Viewing Station and the Hudson Opera House. At City Without Walls (cWOW), special thanks to Ben Goldman and Jill Wickenheisser. The round robin at Trade School was a big success thanks to Grand Opening and OurGoods. Particular thanks are due to Carolyn Woolard and Louise Ma. Many thanks also to University of Trash organizer Michael Cataldi for creating a platform that was perfectly suited for the round robin and to Sculpture Center for allowing us to use their space.