When inspiration strikes, many artists produce rough sketches of their ideas. Some of these sketches show brilliance in the initial concept; others exhibit just a small and simple sign of fertility that develops into a more complete visual achievement.

Jim Pavlicovic, a professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School and president of ArtGroup, assembles 15 artists’ early sketches (and finished products, in some cases) in a new group show, So This Is How It All Began / an exhibit of preparatory drawings. The exhibit opens at Hudson Guild Gallery with a reception on Thursday, September 27, 2007, from 6-8pm.

The 15 artists whose work appears in So This Is How It All Began are sculptors, set designers, painters and multimedia artists. Some have established names for themselves; others are just starting out. So This Is How It All Began features work by:

• Robert Smithson, the late earthworks artist who installed his most famous work, Spiral Jetty, made from mud, salt crystals and rocks, in the Great Salt Lake in Utah in 1970. Mr. Smithson’s sketches of Spiral Jetty have generously been loaned to Hudson Guild for this exhibit; • Peter Harvey, a set decorator whose watercolor sketches for the 1967 premiere of Jewels, the George Balanchine ballet, appear alongside photos from the production; • Rossana Martinez, a young conceptual artist who uses gallery walls as her medium; and Susan Cottle, Paul Fabozzi, Paul Fortunato, Edward Heins, Eric Heist, Jim Pavlicovic, Lola Planells, Gerry Pryor, Bonnie Rychlak, Larry Schulte, Ward Shelley and Anne Thulin.