This thesis explored the problem of creating an illusion of textiles from the beginning stages through the finished work. Included in this study were the reasons for selection of problem, motivation and media. In addition the solutions and interpretations were presented with references to personal gains and insights.

At the beginning or the program my work was strongly oriented toward the individual objects used in the paintings and lacked any cohesive means or unification. Collage was used as an attempt for unification but more was still needed. It was not until I let go or observed or preconceived images and allowed the image to develop from the free now or washes and lines that I was able to allow the picture to give ideas back to me. The pictures were now growing from themselves and from the ideas suggested to me, without having to force the image prior to starting a painting. After many black and white works in this give and take approach I chose to introduce collage and color back into my work. It was also at this point that the choice of subject matter, prior to starting the painting, reappeared. I was now able to work with subject matter as I had before, but in a new, open, and flowing way.

L’absence du dessin des histoires de l’art des années 1950-1960 interroge, alors même que des signes de reconnaissance de la part d’artistes comme Rauschenberg, Hesse, Tinguely,Twombly, Beuys, ou Lebel et d’autres acteurs ont pu être observés.Le dessin doit être défini à partir de ses opérations et compris dans sa relation aux autres médiums. Il est donc considéré comme pratique. En mettant en oeuvre une histoire matérielle, culturelle et sociale de l’art, qui s’appuie sur les dessins eux-mêmes, des documents d’archive et des entretiens avec des acteurs de la période, il s’agit de saisir les relations qui font vivre le dessin.Il s’agit d’appréhender la reconnaissance du dessin et sa redéfinition, entre les interrogations des artistes, les évolutions des critiques et les projets des galeristes et commissaires d’exposition pour montrer comment le dessin se comprend comme une réalité complexe, en acte. Le dessin se redéfinit également comme un moyen de manipuler des images qui deviennent pléthoriques. L’histoire de la psychiatrie confère à la pratique du dessin une valeur expérimentale rarement égalée dans l’histoire de l’art. Cette pratique expérimentale découle de son association à la pensée et met au jour une continuité insoupçonnée dans la période. Qu’il s’agisse d’en renforcer l’assimilation à une « origine de l’art », d’en faire la matrice d’un regard et d’une méthode artistique plus générale, ou le lieu marginal d’une expérience spécifique, la pratique du dessin se comprend dans un éventail large de ses réalités. / Drawing is hardly studied in works of art history focusing on the 1950s and 1960s. This fact is all the more surprising that many artists, such as Rauschenberg, Hesse, Tinguely, Twombly, Michaux or Lebel, but also critics, gallerists and curators took notice of the medium at that time.Drawing must be defined according to its operations and analyzed in its relationshipwith other media. It is approached as a practice. This project is based on a material, culturaland social understanding of art history, it relies on the study of drawings, but also on archive documents and interviews with major figures of the period. From the working process of artists, to the changing discourses of critics and therenewed interest of curators and gallerists, drawing is redefined as a complex object. It allows artists to deal with the flow of images that characterizes the 1950s and 1960s. It also takes on an experimental quality because of its association to the thought process. Psychiatrists andartists have used the practice of drawing to better understand the mind. Whether it is used as an origin of art or as a marginal space implying specific experiences, drawing in the 1950sand 1960s is multi-faceted and is studied as such.