Rashid Johnson’s Sketchbook

The MoMA website has an interesting feature on Rashid Johnson’s sketchbook practice. In a conversation with Samantha Friedman, the organizer of MoMA’s exhibition “Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury,” Johson talks about how he uses sketchbooks, some of the motifs in his drawings, and how the pandemic inspired him to think back to how he’d used sketchbooks in his youth.

Johnson’s sketchbook looks like the notebooks from Portugal made by Emilio Braga. I haven’t seen this brand marketed as sketchbooks per se, but they have blank pages so could work well depending on what drawing materials are used. If you look closely at some of the photographs, you can see it has a marbled design on the page edges, which is another trademark design element for Emilio Braga.

Rashid Johnson’s Stage, a participatory installation and sound work, is currently on view at MoMA PS1. It doesn’t sound like the sketchbooks are included, but I’d love to see more of them!

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