Art and the Matrix

Exhibition Review: Edvard Munch: Master Prints

someendurance — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:00:41 +0000

The Edvard Munch exhibition at the National Gallery (through November 28) is a must see. Even if you are not a fan of Munch, and I must admit I find his work to be extremely uneven, the exhibition presents a fascinating selection of his graphic works and a powerful exploration of his complex working methods. Munch was nothing if not a highly ideosyncratic print maker. He regularly combined multiple techniques together: sometimes using planographic, intaglio and relief techniques on the same print. He also would add color to work using hand-coloring or stenciling and would use uncarved tonal blocks in which the grain of the woodbloock itself played both a coloristic and expressive role. In addition to more traditional a la poupee inking technqiues, he would also cut his blocks into pieces, jigsaw fashion, in order to allow them to be inked individually. Finally, he rarely, if ever, decided on a final state or version, often radically rethinking (or remaking) the works in the process. Many of these features can be found in the most powerful works in the show. Images like Towards the Forest II, Two Women by the Shore, Vampire II and The Kiss all represent triumphs of both artistic expression and artistic experimentation and the exhibition and accompnaying catalog do a great job in tracing both the aesthetic and technical aspects of Munch’s work.

Exhibition Review: Portraits in Piety

someendurance — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:57:35 +0000

Portraits in Piety: Women Saints and Women Religious from the John Thatcher Collection at Howard W. Gunlocke Rare Book and Special Collections Room of the Georgetown University Library (7 September-22 October 2010) is a fascinating exhibition of books in the vernacular concerning female Catholic piety. Acquired in 2009 by the library, the Thatcher Collection consists of nearly 1,500 books dating from the sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century and includes many rare volumes, some of which are held by no other American libraries. A large number of the the books in the exhibtion are“Lives” (Vite in Italian, Vides in Spanish and Vies in French), spiritual histories of notable religious women often written by their confessors or spiritual advisers and sometimes published in order to advance their case for sainthood (or beatification) or to promote their family, hometown or the order of which they were a member. Most of these Vite include at least one image in which the subject of the life was depicted in the act of devotion. In the exhibition most of the volumes were displayed so that these images were visible, allowing the visitor to consider the iconography of such female devotion. Two particularly striking images were an engraving from the life of Suor Veronica Giuliani, published in Rome in 1763, in which the illustration of her being visited by an angel was loosely modeled on Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa and an engraving from the life of one Suor Maria Columba Scaglione, published in Naples in 1756, that depicted her adoring a crucifix with printed images of the Immaculata and St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata pinned to the wall behind her. As a group, these fascinating images, together with the texts that they illustrate, allow the viewer (together with scholars who can study the material in greater depth) to better understand the construction, promotion, and reception of female Catholic piety.

Thrift Store Find

someendurance — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:21:42 +0000

Managed to find an etching by Wenceslaus Hollar of Ranulph Crew from 1661 in a thrift store this weekend.Paid nothing for it, but, of course, it is in terrible shape and will need a lot of conservation to stablize it. So, really, not much of deal at all. This is what it looks like, or rather, what it should look like without the staining.

Wenceslaus Hollar, Ranulph Crewe, 1661, etching.

Forthcoming Exhibition

someendurance — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:26:35 +0000

I’m really lookng forward to the Edvard Munch print exhibition opening at the NGA on July 31. Munch is a peculiar and fascinating printmaker and seeing a large number of impressions at the same time should be great.

Exhibition Review: Woodcuts Now at the BMA

someendurance — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:30:37 +0000

The exhibition Woodcuts Now at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presented an interesting selection of new uses for what is perhaps the oldest printmaking technique. For me the highlights of the show were the works of Christiana Baumgartner, Mel Kendrick, and Chuck Close. Baumgartner’s works were particularly impressive and looked like giant wood engravings even as they were based on stills from her video pieces. Close’s color woodcut, made with Karl Hechsher, raised many interesting questions of facture as its multi-colored appearance imitated Close’s paintings amd was apparently produced by the use of both stencils and a matrix which had been cut apart jigsaw-fashion with the pieces being inked individually.. Finally, Kendrick’s work had an impressive sculptural quality that also drew attention to the matrix and its production, as the marks of the wood itself as well as saw marks were clearly visible in the print.

Upcoming Event

someendurance — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:40:24 +0000

The Baltimore Museum of Art will host the Baltimore Fair for Contemporary Prints and New Editions on March 27 and 28. The fair will feature 14 major contemporary art dealers, galleries, and presses from around the U.S. This unique event offers the opportunity to peruse prints in an intimate setting, talk personally with dealers, and learn more about contemporary artists and printmaking techniques. Visitors will find limited-edition portfolios and single-image prints from both established and emerging artists, including students and alumni from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Exhibition Review: Two Prints Shows at the MFA in Boston

someendurance — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:09:17 +0000

During a recent trip to Boston I was lucky enough to catch two wonderful exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts: Cafe and Cabaret: Toulouse-Latrec’s Paris (through August 8, 2010) and Albrecht Durer: Virtuoso Printmaker (through July 3, 2010). The two artists are amnong my favorite printmakers and the works and impression on display in both exhibtions were uniformly wonderful. The Durer exhibition presented numerous quality impressions of Durer’s most famous works in all media, but the highights of the exhibtion for me were the opportunity to look at a number of Durer’s experiments in etching and the presence of two of his drypoints including the masterful St. Jerome. Seeing the more experimental etching and drypoints in the context of Durer’s masterly use of the engraving and woodcut media, gave one an appreciation for Durer’s artistic mind. In particular,I welcomed the opportunity to see Durer struggle with etching in works such as the Angel with the Sudarium and, perhaps more successfully if less metaphorically, in the Landscape with the Cannon.

The Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition was also interesting, combining a number of works by the title artist with those of his contemporaries. Having seen the impression held at the Baltimore Museum, it was a real treat to see no fewer than 3 impressions of the Loie Fuller lithograph. Other highlights by Lautrec included the Englishman at the Moulin Rouge and Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret, while works by his contemporaries completed an interesting exhibition which both captured the spirit of the Paris of the day and emphasized the unique nature of Toulouse-Lautrec’s vision and technique.

Hogarth: Time Smokes a Picture

someendurance — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:17:57 +0000

Hogarth, Time Smokes a Picture

Got to see my new favorite Hogarth print today (well, maybe the perspective one is still my favorite) Time Smokes a Picture. It is Hogarth’s comment on the cult of old paintings and the mania for dark varnish on Old Master paintings. What really makes the print work is not just that the scythe of Time has fallen through the painting, but that the painting (in the first state) is rendered in mezzotint, the most popular method of reproductive printmaking in Hogarth’s day.

Glossary

someendurance — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:53:56 +0000

The glossary of printmaking terms is now complete. Please suggest additions and corrections!

Forthcoming Exhibition

someendurance — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:16:20 +0000

The Darker Side of Light: The Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900 will open at the National Gallery in Washington on October 1, 2009. This exhibition will focus on small, private works of art including prints, drawings and small sculptures and the moody Romantic sensibilties of these works. A catalog will be available.