Art and the Aesthete

Thanks to Juergen...

2011-09-06T14:25:00.000+08:00

Okay everyone, the blog is back up and hopefully running. Take images and info, and use it. I will check in spasmodically to help and offer suggestions, but basically it returns as a resource. Thank you to all for the kind words, but really it's a time matter.
Anyway....have at it.

2011-09-04T15:11:00.000+08:00

Well everyone, I want to say thank you for the support; kind words and the encouragement. I have enjoyed the process and working on the blog, but now...I think I have to say goodbye. I will leave all the postings up here because I still think that there is the potential for the material to be useful in the future.
I don't have the time to dedicate to the blog anymore but I have had a wonderful time and the process has been amazing.

Gary Ratushniak (Canada 1957 - )

2011-08-06T13:48:00.004+08:00

Through this blog I have "met" a number of remarkable people and family members and friends of artists I have featured on this blog, from Tokyo to Vienna to Los Angeles to Sydney. I am often astonished at the generosity of people who write to me, and it is clear through the blog what exactly my aesthetic is. I recently received an email from Gary Ratushniak, who studied with Sybil Andrews for over a decade in Canada in her later years and even had the good fortune of exhibiting with her both during her lifetime and after she died. She became both a mentor and a very close friend to him but more than that he also met Bernard Rice in the mid-80s after he went to London. Rice taught him some woodblock techniques which he still uses. Over the years they both became good friends.

Gary grew up in British Columbia which is where Sybil Andrews moved after she left England.

Over a ten-year period Ratushniak studied drawing, painting and printmaking under Andrews, with an emphasis on the techniques of printmaking, and especially the art of the linocut. In the course of this decade a deep friendship grew between the two, and Andrews gave voice to this dedicating her book The Artist's Kitchen with the words "For Gary Ratushniak, who shared our great discussions".

I think these works show mastery not just of colour and application, but also of line and movement. If the goal was to imbue his work with painterly qualities, he did it. There is a kind of depth that is in these works whereas in many of the Grosvenor School works there is a sweep and swoop of line and colour, but depth was not a main concern. I like both, because both speak of the same process but a different execution. His works are outstanding and visually exciting. Enjoy.

Jan Portenaar (Netherlands 1886 - 1958)

2011-07-23T09:57:00.000+08:00

Portenaar was an important Dutch printmaker and graphic artist. He is largely unknown outside of Holland, but more's the pity. He worked extensively in graphic arts, and was famous in Holland for his etchings and lithographs but he also worked as a woodcut artist and worked extensively as a book illustrator.

It is suggested that Portenaar was largely self educated and, this is another reason why his works are outstanding. He did study however under Piet van Wijngaerdt and Willem Witsen. Portenaar was the consumate traveller and lived in London, where he created a piece largely considered one of his masterpieces, "Waterloo Bridge". In 1915 he won the silver medal at the San Francisco International Exhibition that created many stars of the print. He also visited India and lived in the 20's for a time in the Dutch East Indies.

There is a diversity of style to be studied in the works of Portenaar, who often suggestively indicated water in its various aspects by a few judiciously chosen lines. Portenaar cannot be mentioned without any comparison to his mentor, Willem Witsen. Witsen's technical ingenuity produced odd and telling effects by the use of an aquatint. sulphurtint and other processes or manipulations, and the results of his works are outstanding. The works of Portenaar seemed to strive in the Orient. There are distinct notes in his works, and his love of water is clear. His works, although not always stunning, are noteworthy and the artistic merit of his works go without staying.

Lily Blatherwick (Britain 1859 -1934)

2011-07-19T10:31:00.000+08:00

Lily Blatherwick was a British printmaker and the wife of the famed lithographer Archibald Standish Hartick. Although there is nothing astonishing in her designs or execution there is something of interest. In many ways Blatherwick's works were overshadowed by the works of her husband, but her own works are an expression of appreciation for the romantic beauty of the natural world. Her realism was not wasted just on a lovely scene however. Despite the monochromatic aspects of these lithographs, the works themelseves have a richness all their own.

A wise artist turns away from hackneyed subjects, not from a desire to appear original but from a feeling that he or she can better test their powers on subjects that are not wrapped in memories. It is clear that Blatherwick was not oblivious of the work done by her husband, her works are works of her own desire and are competent and clearly trained images of nature. Yes, there is something Edwardian about them, but at a time when many Edwardians were doing works of Venetian bridges or Gothic protals, here was a woman doing something that inspired her.

When an artist struck off across the open country and looked at unfamiliar things they often did so within the parameters of their own training and their cultural understanding of things. Here was an artist who, more than likely did works that were inspired by her own garden. They are delicate works and her sensitive suggestions of form show a woman who had the freedom to pursue and enjoy the things she wanted to. Other artists, might have done this as well, and captured the same kinds of images with just as much skill, but these plates are beautiful and show us an artist capable of putting nature to the lithographic stone.

Blatherwick exhibited at the Royal Academy and her name is generally centered on watercolour studies of flowers, but I would suggest she was more of a naturalist. Her works are held in all of the major British museums including the V&A and the British.

Eugène Carrière (France 1849 - 1906)

2011-07-18T19:28:00.001+08:00

Eugène Carrière was a French painter and printmaker whose name is largely forgotten today, but in his day, he was a star of French art. Carrière was an artist who responded to the intellectual inspiration of art in France, and in some ways he was an early adherent to the ideas and methods of Symbolism. However, he abstracted from them, and his pleasure in the ideas can be seen in his monochromatic etchings. He was neither poet nor symbolist, but a penetrating observer, whose distinction lay in the union of a quiet manner with a sensitive vision. His portraits capture the delicacy of sitters, and yet even after all these years, they still have an airy with a crispness of execution.

The portrait below of Marguerite Carrière is underlit but leaves us with the character in the face, and the planes and plateaus of her face. There is character in this face, and without colour, the image is sober and full and somehow full ot texture. The other printworks also exhibit Carrière's skill and integrity. In these works we are aware of the humility required to absorb the sitter's personality in order to reflect it again in the stone, this is one of the rarest of an artist's gifts. In these works we find an acuteness of vision, a liveliness of imagination, and a passion for radiant, luminous light and shade that give the impression of an audacious mind, intensely alert and a wonderful sensibility.

Carrière's work is refined and the black and white lithographic medium is forced to convey as brilliantly as oils, capturing the irridescence of light on skin. However, we do see a trace of the French tendency toward exaggerations of projection. I spend a lot of time waffling on about works on paper, but these works exemplify the value of the monochromatic print. An artist subtracts colour, in order to give the utmost value to the line, and these images are made simply of dark and light, expressing the profound emotion of a creative mind. The resolution of all secondary effects into this unity of impression demands a significance of thought and execution to bear the weight of concentrated interest. Carrière's paintings are also large rhythms and concerned themselves with human character, pity and love and the joy of childhood, all expressed in the lyric movement of life. Carrière was an important member and one of the leaders in the French secessionist movement, which led to the founding of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Carrière's works influenced Matisse and Picasso's blue period and it is a travesty that he doesn't receive the kudos he deserves. In his day Carrière received high praise from the French critics for his treatment of light and air, and his works on paper are no less appealing. They re-establish a kind of faith in art as a performance reflecting the mind and emotion of the artist and the objective world that nourishes and colours them.

Duck!

2011-06-28T08:45:00.000+08:00

An uncommonly seen Royds, very much in the spirit of Seaby, for whom she was clearly inspired, and of course Seaby was very much inspired by the Japanese and German masters. This is a stunning piece.

Mabel Dwight (U.S.A 1876–1955)

2011-06-28T07:57:00.002+08:00

Mabel Dwight studied art at the Hopkins Art School in San Francisco, but made her career in New York, where she depicted city life in prints and paintings. She worked for the New York WPA between 1935 and 1939. Dwight's style hardly put her in a class by herself, and it is well known that many artists used the medium of lithographs as a method of personal expression . Dwight used her works to show social differences and the discrepancy between the rich and poor. Her works however, are always elaborate and exhibited a greater technical mastery in that the method is more difficult.

The views of life she portrays are not always charming, but one is tempted to say, they are full of beauty. There are hastening crowds, and despite the somewhat dark and dismal lives sometimes captured, there is an atmosphere enveloping each of the aromas as with a filmy cloak - the harmony and sweetness of the tone, and the crisp precision of the line melting into tenderness and losing itself in translucent shadow, all this is Dwight at her best. Curiously, unlike many of her male contemporaries, Dwight was passionate for a compassionate portrayal of the less fortunate in life. Dwight developed the lithographic process to create softly shaded compositions with lighter backgrounds for contrast.

Dwight often chose dusk or shaded light, but in many of her works the shadows, instead of deepening, are lifting and the light is veiled by a mist or veil. It would be difficult to imagine anything more sensitively rendered or more compassionate in character than her portraits of life. The portraits form a series by themselves, vigorous characterizations, neither idealized nor forced into the picturesque or chocolate box. They are instead images that are constructed with distinction and drawn with a sureness and understanding that showed us both a masterful artist and a person caring about the the world she observed about her.

To an artist of Dwight's temperament, infinitely patient in art, the slightness of a medium appears to be only an incentive to greater effort. Industry in art is a necessity, not a virtue, and any evidence of the same in the production is a blemish, not a quality. The intense vitality in these images, with the air of being photos capturing a moment in history, show they must have taxed Dwight's powers as an artist to as great an extent as her paintings.

June Wayne (U.S.A. 1918 - )

2011-06-25T10:38:00.000+08:00

June Claire Wayne is a vastly under-rated printmaker based in the USA. She was born in Chicago and left school at the age of fifteen to become an artist. She had her first American solo exhibition in 1935 and the following year, her first international solo exhibition. She was engaged in the WPA project in Chicago and by the 40's was a designer, illustrator, writer and of course an outstanding artist. After the end of the second World War she was collaborating with Durassier in France and with some encouragement, she developed the Tamarind Lithography Works. Although Wayne has shown her expertise in virtually every area of the arts and design, it is her lithographic works that are a highly distinguished affair.

Logic, and imagination, technical expertness and artistic tact are all in force in the varying works of Wayne. In some ways, Wayne's works are not just art, they are social commentary. She is, in many ways, like the city New York, where she resided for so long..unabashed and unself-conscious. There is also a distinct literary appeal in the works of Wayne, and this connection is not a mere nod or anecdotal interpretation. Wayne's works have such atmospheric quality, and such breadth and depth of line that they defy the use of colour, so much so that in many of her works it would seem that colour would be an intrusion. Much of her design shows such a French feeling that she also seems to almost defy her American upbrining and there is a transformation there that is apparent in the frank interpretation that she uses when composing her works. There is an understanding, especially with her Kafka works, where she observes the absurdity of life with both an accurate and sympathetic vision.

In her lithographic works, Wayne reached her highwater mark of technique and quality of delicate precision that is hard to compare to many other modernist Americans working on paper. Ultimately, Wayne's works demonstrate the classic school of American modernism. Certainly all the very best of all modern American prints, and those on which many Americans pride themselves on, are their realistic works that capture the lives of real people. However, modernist and abstract works require a particular and exceptional method of treatment and accordingly many people fail to understand the richs within. Ms. Wayne's works can be compared to the best of those modernists

Lilian May Miller (U.S.A. 1895-1943)

2011-06-23T10:49:00.006+08:00

Lilian Miller was the child of American diplomats living in Tokyo, at a time when lives were lived conventionally. After living in Japan, and then the USA, she moved to Korea when her father was named the American Consul General there. She studied art in Japan under Bokusen Shimada, and the rest, as they say, is history. Her works were popular amongst the diplomatic corps although most of her works were destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923.

It was clear that Miller was heavily influenced by her surroundings, and her art has always preserved this imprint. Even in her most moderne pieces one feels the atmosphere of Asia that so clearly served as her inspiration. Her interest was not simply in the techniques of woodblock printing, she also combined skil with colour in attempting to make prints that captured and copied the effects of the Japanese masters. She devoted much time and attention to the mechanical process of reproduction of the prints, as well as the design of the print. As regards composition and tone, Miller's prints were conceived very much in the Japanese spirit, but even during that time, her art never really departed from her favoured subjects, landscape and people.

Among the works of women who worked in printmaking in Asia, Miller's works hold a high place, and although I personally prefer the works of Katharine Jowett, Miller's works are always looked for with the expectation that it will prove in fair measure, above the commonplace. Her works recall the coloured cartoons, often comic in their purpose, drawn by Boutet de Manvel; but none are other than serious productions picturing the ordinary images of life. Both de Manvel and Miller were inspired by the Japanese, who long ago dared to use simple flat colours and bold lines in a way that Europe had not used for centuries past; therefore the resemblance of these pictures of Japanese prints is natural enough. That resemplance is most pronounced in her works with people, and always the scenes are ordinary moments, the acts are ordinary everyday doings.

George Biddle (U.S.A. 1885 - 1973)

2011-06-22T10:00:00.000+08:00

George Biddle was an American artist hailing from Philadelphia, who created works on paper that were both powerful and laden with message. Biddle was from an affluent Philadelphia family and went to school with Franklin Roosevelt and after Groton, studied law at Harvard. However, art was his true passion and prior to World War I he arrived in Paris to study at the famed and oft-mentioned, Academie Julian. If his works seem to owe something to the heritage of German printmakers, you would be right. He studied printmaking in Madrid but perhaps more importantly his printmaking studies in Munich clearly left a massive aesthetic mark. In the twenties he traveled in Mexico with Diego Rivera, and by the time of the Great Depression was very focused on social art and art with message.

I mentioned Biddle's relationship with Roosevelt because, through their friendship developed during their years at Groton, they maintained contact, and during Roosevelt administration, Biddle was one of the founding members of the Federal Art Project. This idea doubtless came from what he saw in Mexico in the previous decade, and, Biddle himself was an active artist in the WPA.

Biddle's etchings, drypoints and lithographs make an exhilirating impression. His breadth and freedom of style, together with a degree of elegance found rarely in a man who was fascinated by the natural world and the social world as well. His prints embody this joy of life without spoiling everything by excessive decoration or sentimentality. He has, too, a rare sense of appropriateness in scale, which seems to me to be a distinct influence of the German aesthetic. His images capture people as well as animals with shading and strong line, and his echoes of details are refined. When he does use colour, it is glowing and rich but it is also clear, that his preference was for shade as opposed to sweeping gestures of colour.

Throughout his work, is the feeling of strong and subtle influence of a life well lived and one that was experienced. He brings together these disparate interests and somehow makes them seem to belong together. His works when seen as a whole are varied but always seem to have some theme that runs through them. One thing I find with many American artists, is the preference they have for small sensations over generous emotions and for grace over awkwardness. In the case of Biddle, a man who was able to achieve manner over mannerism.

Vacation

2011-06-13T20:24:00.000+08:00

I haven't abandoned the blog, just on vacation. I will be back next week.

Edwardian Art and the unintended effect on Frederick Childe Hassam (U.S.A 1859–1935)

2011-05-30T12:00:00.029+08:00

I wrote this posting some time ago, and then thought against posting it. I considered perhaps it was a little harsh, so shouldn't be posted. However, I think that the works of Hassam are part of the distillation process that I am going through regarding high Edwardian printmania. Perhaps this is connected to the reason perhaps why this period hasn't fared as well as time goes on, and nor has Hassam's work. Hassam is both a cautionary tale, and also an example par excellence. He was a patrician artist who grew up in a wealthy and prosperous East Coast family, and studied in Boston and then at the Academie Julian in Paris under Boulanger and Lefabvre. He was an early follower of Monet in France, and later became influenced by Whistler. Hassam, who on wood, copper and canvas continually sought to capture the flicker of sunlight outdoors, led to him being called a "luminist".

Hassam became known as one of the leading exponenets of "luminism" (American Impressionism) and it's ironic that he helped to found a group of artists to rebel against the American Academy. Ironic because Hassam was such a purist in technique and often chose those techniques based on what would bring him the most success, financially that is. Sadly, much of Hassam's work is quite imitative and the weakness of his work is that there is virtually no energy. Hassam was one of those Edwardian artists who needed to fill virtually every space. This adds another issue because much of the space is feebly related and in some of his works he makes no effort toward even trying to escape his imitations of Whistler (I am speaking of the "White Kimono" below). I am not one to write negatively about artists in general, so I will be fair. There is a nervous quality and even when the design seems rather imitative, it conveys an impression of life moving in it's own time. He is strongest and most original when his works are quick and observational and his figures are sculptural.

Hassam was hugely popular in the Edwardian period with the well-to-do of New York, Boston and Washington, but mostly with his paintings. They were often interiors with figures or small landscapes with figures, sometimes nudes. He seemed happiest when doing this kind of work, and perhaps the problem is they haven't aged well. With modern eyes they sometimes seem clunky and staged, but then that is an ailment that affects many of the Edwardian artists today. Works by Hassam fit into this very stagey style of work, with girls sewing or reading outdoors with soft light and downward cast and demure countenance. It could be argued that this summary of Hassam is unfair, because of course Hassam was mostly famed for his paintings. However, even with his paintings his work was once described as "cribbed, cabin'd and confined", which sounds like the title to a Cole Porter song.

His paintings were compared to Renoir, because that is who he obviously cribbed from, but his works lacked greatly when compared to Renoir's works. His later etchings were often compared, by design, to Whistler. Here too, his print works never quite match up to his inspiration. Perhaps if his works were more vivacious and alive, they would have stood the test of time, and perhaps if they possessed more distinction....or at the very least something that would make them distinct. When you look at these etchings, you would be hard pressed to make the mistake, that you are looking at etchings by Whistler. I am certain the comparison and cribbing was an intentional hope by Hassam, but overall his works are part of a period of art marketing that haven't really contributed a great deal to American art, and to be fair, Hassam wasn't the only victim or perpetrator.

It was often thought during the Edwardian period that etchings afforded the artist the opportunity to capture light very well, especially when compared to other reproductive techniques of the time. This school of thought not only required greater quickness but also greater accuracy, especially in the rendering of shading and light. During the Edwardian period, etchings were in high favour and that popular taste combined with a fluffy and over-inflated etching market, made it seem as though etchings of the high Edwardian style would never end. Many, many artists embarked on adventures in black and white, either reproducing their own work in oils or taking up the etching needle as their chosen tool. The question arises wether it was all good etching or that many artists, like Hassam, used it for money in between oils. Etching popularity and the bubble associated with it, is an interesting part of history I think. In some ways, the artists of the day thought it was part of the democratization of art, and was another stage in the development in tastes for the fine arts.

During the Edwardian period there was also an attached glamour to having works with the term "remarque" and "artist's proof", that slowly diminished by the 20's since it wasn't possible to fortify the face of a plate that the one thousandth print taken from it would be as clear and fine as the first. The market was largest (and by largest I mean most over-inflated) in London and New York, where the well-to-do and newly minted mercantile class were falling over themselves to show their good taste. Perhaps it was the portability, relative cheapness and simplicity of creating something for ten people rather than for one person that began thinning out the artistic herd. If your paintings fell out of favour, you were probably in some trouble, and if it was sold, you only sold that one, but with an etching, if it was popular you could make more prints of it.

This was the weakness of Hassam in my opinion and to some extent Whistler, who was a big proponent of the etching, because it suited him financially. Collecting etchings is no longer the pursuit it was during the 1900's, but as the fickle fortunes of art changed, there are many museums in Britain and the USA that have an interesting record of the Edwardian etching boom and bust in their "currently not on display" collections. Speaking of boom and bust, when you read this I will be in the air flying to Canada, so postings may be a little light for a couple of weeks. Don't remove me from your favourite lists though, rest assured I will be back with more ruminations and mental meanderings on art and the artists who create them.

Fletcher Martin (USA 1904–1979)

2011-05-25T14:13:00.000+08:00

Fletcher Martin was an unlikely artist who reached staggering success without very much training. It is perhaps testament to his father's life in newspapers and printing that he was able to see things in such variety, yet only using black and white. The woodcuts I have featured here represent activity mostly undertaken in the 20's and 30's, and exclusively black and white. His works are beautifully done, and cry out to be published. His first exhibit, a show of woodcuts in 1933 at the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles, was followed in 1934 by a one man show at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego.

By the time the Great Depression ended, he was already a star and although there was widespread ignorance of the technique and the process, his works awakened a very appreciative Californian audience. Despite the fact that they are small in size and simply black and white, they are great in spirit and are completely devoid of the pretty and decorative. A quick glance of the works that I have posted here today to give a representation of his work, show that Fletcher, loved the simple and graphic. Fashions in art are not rapid in their course, but their sway is evident. When looking at Martin, a number of British, French and Australian artists immediately spring to mind. This is not because of any artistic cribbing, rather groups of artists across the world riding the wave of a very time-specific aesthetic and technical style.

The time that Martin was working in woodcuts was the time when woodcuts occupied the genius of the best artists, and etchings and lithographs had fallen out of favour. At one time the soft stippled effect of mezzotints were popular, and Whistler had worked hard around the time Fletcher was born, to revive it. Fletcher's work makes the instant appeal of the woodcut, very obvious. The black and white is immediately arresting and there is sharp contrast that isn't easy to substitue with other techniques. These are not the works of the old stately wood-engravers whose works were used to fill the pages of papers and magazines, these were something different.

By thickening or thinning the lines and changing the light and dark portions, we end up with precision and solidity. There was no consideration for Martin in how to produce subtle gradations in tone which give the character of a landscape. When you are in the domain of the black and white, everything is clear and lines need to be excellent. Fletcher went on to teach and train and was a star of the print by the time he passed away. I am not sure he is really remembered, and I personally do not like his paintings... but as a star of the print, he was one of the best talents working in the field in the first half of the 20th Century.

Theodore Polos (Greece/USA 1902-1976)

2011-05-21T15:29:00.002+08:00

Born in Greece in 1902, Polos left home when he was fourteen years old in 1916. At the ripe old age of 14 he arrived in Boston, where he went to high school for about a year. In 1922 he went to California to visit his brother who was at the University of California. He lived primarily in the Bay Area for the remainder of his life. He had limited art training, but he did attend the Oakland College of Arts and Crafts for a semester and the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. It could be said that it was providence that elevated Polos to the heights he achieved during his lifetime, but that would be inaccrurate. During his life he won numerous prizes for his paintings and during a time of great economic hardship, he managed to succeed when many failed. His paintings are outstanding but his lithographic work is also stunning.

Polos was first and foremost a painter, and in his printworks there is a painter's love of the bitten line. His control of his artistic equipment enabled him to create works that stopped before reaching the brink of excess, and his fine compositions, even today are technically stunning and still modern. Polos shows the characteristics of someone who had already lived quite a life by the time he began making art and the original force of his viewpoint and passion is always apparent. The interpretation of landscapes, scenes and characters always seem to be his goal. His extraordinary printwork show in every detail in the total effect of both a profound youth and a life lived in action, The great bulk of his works on paper are technically superb and his power to render an idea with unmistakable clarity and force is always apparent. Perhaps when Polos is weakest is when is printworks are too closely related to the pen-and-ink manner. At his best, his works make it clear he himself is acquainted with his subject from every angle.

I think sometimes that the influence of an Aegean birth in Polos's work appears in his passionate interest in rendering effects of light and dark, and this makes his landscapes come out of the background almost in a relief style. There is not much that is said about the tactile aspect of printmaking but there is a kind of dimensionality to it in the hands of the talented. The art of simplifying our thought or view is also something that has a kind of magic also, in the right hands. Polos experimented with many mediums and it shows. His printworks have a kind of fidelity to objective fact combined with a modernist's eye. The characteristics of his work are clarity and a total lack of over-emphasis, and of course even in a new century...a modernity that still exists even today.

Eugen Spiro (Germany 1874 - 1972)

2011-05-17T14:47:00.000+08:00

Eugen Spiro was born in Breslau and died in New York City, and was more known for his paintings in his later life. He studied art in Breslau under Albrecht Bräuer and later became a master student of Franz von Stuck in Munich. His early portraits of women appeared frequently in, as well as on the covers of, the Jugendstil magazine, Der Jugend. After a brief marriage to the actress Tilla Durieux (1904-1906), Spiro relocated to Paris where he studied the French masters and impressionists and became a Professor at the Académie Moderne, co-founded the Salon d’Automne, and belonged to the circle of artists and writers of the Parisian Café du Dôme. He later became Chairman of the Berliner Sezession and remained in Berlin until the rise of the Nazis. Due to his Jewish heritage he moved to Paris and stayed in relative safety and being widely exhibited. By 1940, France was no longer safe from the fascists and in 1941 he arrived in the USA.

He had been a famous artist in Europe, but was unknown in the USA. This was not the case for long and his portraits, and landscapes made him a sought out artist. His painted works hang in museums, but perhaps he is lesser recognized and remembered for his drypoint etchings and illustrations.

Although he is largely remembered today as a portrait artist, he shared many characteristics as an inheritance of his region and the Breslau heritage of art and printmaking. The passion and verve of his drypoints were admired greatly at the time. One has but to note the detail in his studies of Northern Africa and Spanish streets and buildings to realize with how scrupulous a conscience he followed the curved line of an Alhambra archway or the structural line of a Tangiers market. Each line seems speedily done and yet plays a role in each of his compositions.

Perhaps the finest aspect of Spiro's printworks is that they are free from superficiality and decorative line which many Germanic printmakers were content with at the time. The keynote of his workmanship is respect for the scene, material and for the accuracy of statement without embellishment. However, any observer thougtfully considering these careful achievements, so filled with conscience and devotion, will feel the technical merit, and be able to see beautifully rendered works that capture the moment perfectly. I have become used to the German love of the decorative over the years and many times, it just works. However this sparseness in the works of Spiro is interesting because it shows a wonderful combination of perception and skill, without any superfluous decoration. The works are more reminiscent of French printmaking than German, and that makes sense.

Spiro's works are a very personal style but I do identify something with the Breslau artists of the 1900's. Their works are often identifiable because of the collective use of bold freedom from linear compositions combined with a kind of speedy serenity in the treatment of the masses, and large landscapes. Spiro's works manifest these attributes, and it is time for a little balance to be given to his artistic legacy.

Hideo Hagiwara 萩原英雄 ( Japan 1913 – 2007)

2011-05-10T13:45:00.001+08:00

Hagiwara was born in 1913 in Kofu, Yamanashi and spent his early years in Korea, during the Japanese colonial period. As a student he moved to Tokyo to study at the the Tokyo Arts School, from there, he graduated in 1938. The majority of his art training was in painting but of course, he studied the art of woodblock printing from Unichi Hiratsuka . Upon his graduation he worked at the Takamizawa Woodblock Print Company. His independent printmaking came into play only after the war and his period abstraction began in the late 1950's. By the 70's Hagiwara had attained a certain level of international fame, but his works are largely unknown.
Hagiwara's works are no livelier than his contemporaries, but one thing that is interesting is that they are fresher. If the idea comes to us in the beauty of of an undiminished style and strength of image, then Hagiwara's works must be mentioned. Hagiwara's works are indeed woodcuts, however, the traditional form of Japanese woodblock was where he started bu not where he finished. One of the traditional aspects of the Japanese woodblock that Hagiwara did keep, was the modulations of tone and the truly impassioned fidelity on the part of this artist. The other aspect of Hagiwara of course is design. One of the often used reasons to dismiss abstract art is that it's simple. Actually the simplifications of design that are demanded, and how well it is done, is the true sign of outstanding abstract art. In fact, good abstract art is actually more revealing because it makes you consider what has been left out or what the initial inspiration was. With Hagiwara, there is thought and feeling behind the work and there is no enticement of daintily wrought detail to cover anything up. The woodcuts of Hagiwara are at least courageous and at best, very important works of art.As always with any art, there are men and women who stand at the parting of schools and movements and offer us something from each. Hagiwara is one of these artists, and that is because there is a quietness and refinement in his method. His careful, precise and cultivated accents make an admirable foil to the freedom and boldness of many of his compatriots who worked in the same circles. Hagiwara's disciplined intelligence if bristling with artistic independence. He seeks his freedom through respectful obedience to his medium, and the result invariably commands respect on the part of the public.

To Have and To Hang

2011-05-09T19:34:00.004+08:00

It has been a while, I know, but don't blame me....blame Ebay. However, I have found enough that require some special focus and some additions to your "Watch List".

John doesn't always have a lot on Ebay for sale, and not always often, but when he does....it's worth waiting for. This one is no different. It's classic French Nouveau and a touch of pastiche at a bargain price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200604635887&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have mentioned this piece before, and I am somewhat surprised it remains unsold. Ian Cheyne is perhaps so unknown and rare he has no real presence. The fact that it is likely estate stamped rather than signed also matters, but it is still the real thing and still a gorgeous piece of Deco printmaking. The seller is a pleasure to deal with and recently sold a wonderful Ursula Fookes, and the seller of my Isabel de Bohun Lockyer. One to keep an eye on.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220779706979&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Masami Nakayama is somewhat unknown, and of course that's partly because most of his work is held in institutions. His work is held in the British Museum and a slew of other institutions and his works have featured in exhibitions also. Mostly famed for etchings which this one is not. This is entitled "Flight towards the Infinite" and dates to 1961. It's an aquatint, and currently a bargain.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260778589640&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

An interesting watercolour study for a stained glass window. Interesting because it's clearly of the Art Nouveau period. These kinds of work were very common during the period and virtually every art student in Europe and UK was required to study the technique if they were art school students. Despite the fact they were common, the studies are not commonly found, this is also rather exceptional. So there is something interesting, and in general these are rare.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300555381072&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Although no fan of Hall Thorpe, my favourite Cornish sellers, have a rather appealing one, which although it doesn't work for me, will be snapped up no doubt. It's interesting because it's rare and such a radically different print by Thorpe standards. It's worth a watch.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260781270066&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

For photographic fans (of which I am one) a lovely signed Aaron Siskind gelatin silver print. Signed and dated 1958 (as opposed to '38 that the seller has mentioned)but most importantly, it is a really wonderful and simple photograph, evocative of Siskind.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320695441655&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

From a different seller, a rather beautiful and understated Ralph Gibson photograph. Not really a piece that leaps out as Gibson, but as a juxtaposition of line, texture and shade, it's quite a photograph. A signed artist proof from 1975. Not sure how much the seller thinks he will get for it, because it's not typically Gibson, and I suspect the reserve may be high.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270744909170&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

For those living in Europe without a Paypal account and without any concerns about buyer protection, a stunning fully signed Emma Bormann woodcut of Istanbul awaits. It is a delight and despite my churlish tone, the truth is, if I lived in Europe, I would bid on it.
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemnext&item=260781300068.html

Finally, an Ernest Watson when Watson was at the very peak of his printmaking prowess. This print is a symphony, and not a commonly seen one. I am not sure about the come-on from the seller, he may be gilding the lily a smidge...it's still a beautiful piece.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200605969603&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Koshiro Onchi 恩地孝四郎 (Japan 1891 – 1955

2011-05-09T08:03:00.004+08:00

Onchi was the most important figure in the 'Sosaku Hanga' movement from 1918 until his death and is perhaps one of the most important Japanese print makers you have never heard of. In a lot of ways, Onchi was the heir to a very German artistic movement. By that I mean Onchi happily meandered through every field of art, and the arts, but he never achieved anything as beautifully as he did in his woodblocks. He had a rare visual tact that cannot be compared to other artists of the print. It was partially his skill, but it was also his own native intelligence that led him to express himself in publishing, poetry, magazine editing and a whole slew of other artistic and creative enterprises. However, nothing he did excelled his printmaking perfection.
Onchi managed to say everything that was needed to be said in his works in his very decorative sentences. The thing about Onchi was that he used the best of the Japanese tradition, all the while blazing new trails. He was the son of one of an Imperial Court official, who was also one of the teachers of the previous emperor. Onchi's mother was also a part of the imperial circle and it was because of this rarified world, that Onchi had access to the German Cooperative Middle School in Tokyo. His contact with German culture and the language gave him a very special sympathy with German bildung, culture and artistic movements. This leads back to the German Bildung tradition which has no real comparative in Anglo culture. The philosophy and education are virtually synonymous terms that designate an ongoing process of both personal and cultural maturation. This maturation is evidenced in a harmonization of the individual’s mind and heart and in a unification of society. Harmonization of the self is achieved through a wide variety of experiences and challenges to the individual’s accepted beliefs. This very German aspect of art, culture and growth has very clear and obvious similarities to traditional Japanese education, in fact German education directly influenced Japan, to the point that even today, you can still see Japanese school students wearing the gakuran which is derived from Prussian army uniforms.His German inclinations and understanding led him to have a powerful influence on the movement we call "Sosaku Hanga". From 1909 through to the late 20's Onchi used his very German influenced ideas and aesthetic to work as an arts organizer, publisher and overall revolutionary in the arts world of moribund Tokyo. In 1939 he was sent to China as a war artist. However, at the end of the war, Onchi emerged as the master of Japanese printmaking. Onchi was a busy man but his works also make it clear that he was also an artistic entrepreneur who was more than happy to let his art tell a story. He was also desperately determined to rout the conventional. I think many of his compatriots were struggling with food and living, so much so, that it meant they weren't busy throwing off the shackles of artistic traditions. As a result they created conventional and rather dull works. Onchi seems to have escaped this fate. There is nothing conventional about his work, despite the fact that he used a very conventional technique with a thousand year history. Instead he gives us feelings, and ideas. This was something that the Chinese and Japanese masters who created the technique didn't always manage convincingly.

Onchi developed a friendship with the American, William Hartnett which ultimately led to the introduction of his work and that of his pupils in the USA. From there he exhibited at the São Paolo Biennale in 1951 and became Chairman of the Kokusai Hanga Kyokai. The latter part of his life saw him settle into his role as father of the Sosaku Hanga and his influence continued with the next generation of print makers in Japan. It could be easy to dismiss the importance of Onchi, if it were not for the exquisite craftsmanship. He had a perfectly mature knowledge of where to put his colour and shapes. Look at how beautifully the shapes and lines are placed. There is no doubt that this artist knew his stuff. There are legitimate limitations due to the printmaking processes, that required the truly outstanding artists to work so much harder to create works that truly stop us and make us want to absorb it. Onchi's influence was more than just aesthetics but an entire generation of art in Japan.

Helen Hyde (U.S.A. 1868 - 1919)

2011-05-07T13:25:00.008+08:00

I have been dismissive of Hyde in the past because I find her works often steeped more in sentiment than sophistication. They are however delightfully planned patterns, skillfully executed and printed with a fine regard for qualities of colour. This manipulation of tones give her works a rather European sense of colour and it perhaps one of the reasons her works have such a strong following. Colour prints abound of course, and the Japanese influence on printmaking has been mentioned many times on this blog before. The influence can be felt either directly or indirectly. Among those women who worked so obviously in the Japanese tradition, Elizabeth Keith is perhaps the finest, and it is one of the reasons I will write about her soon. Lum studied the technique but focused heavily on the spirtual symbolism of Japan and China.
Hyde was a different artist, and she mostly contented herself with presenting Japanese types of childhood and girlhood, through Western eyes. In some ways I could make a comparison with Eliza Gardner, who worked in similar colours with very distinct and similar topics. Childhood is appealing, but her blocks depend for their unusual interest in part upon the unusualness of the topic. However, Hyde was primarily an ornamentalist and she used the characters and costumes of Meiji Japan for colour and movement. She had no reason to changer her spots, because her Japanese mothers and children paid for a very comfortable life at a time when most women had few choices.

Although I rate Elizabeth Keith much higher than either Lum or Hyde, Hyde was not the strongest nor most original of the artists of the technique in the period either. However, her works are free from self-consciousness cheer when they are not tumbling into chocolate box.

Karl Köpping (Germany 1848 - 1914)

2011-05-06T17:05:00.006+08:00

Köpping was, in his day one of the most famous German lithographers and etchers you have never heard of. He was born in Dresden but studied in Munich and Paris (where he exhibited his works in 1879-1900). He became one of the most famous proponents of the Munich school and was a teacher of Liebermann. Köpping trained as a painter and printmaker initiallly but from 1890 he taught etching at the Berlin Academy and from 1896 replaced Meier-Graefe on the editorial board of the luxury art magazine Pan.

It was Pan magazine where his early designs for fragile ornamental glasses were illustrated, in his own original etchings. He was perhaps one of the strongest from the point of technical facility, and his works eventually became very free. Over time, Köpping freed himself from the tendency toward imitation of nature that was prevalent in the Munich school of the time. He evolved for himself a a formula of line and shade that were adequately expressive and in the case of his ornamental glasses, quite decorative.

Köpping also moved away from colour schemes and severe lines, and seemed to prefer instead the decorative style, that was more influenced by his time in Paris. In some ways Köpping's very reduced pieces are the most interesting. He worked within the idea of dark and light and the overall effect was serene and calming. Not all of his works are appealing to me, and outside of an Art Nouveau idea, his works are rather weak and inert. He died in Berlin in 1914.

Gen Yamaguchi 山口源 (Japan 1896–1976)

2011-05-04T18:06:00.008+08:00

Yamaguchi was born in Shizuoka and lived most of his life in the rural city of Numazu. He was from a wealthy family and was permitted to follow his artistic dreams, and studied under one of the undisputed modernist Japanese print masters, Koshiro Onchi. It was a chance meeting with Shizuo Fujimori in Taiwan in 1914 that sparked Yamaguchi's interest in printmaking however, and in the 20's he became a pupil of Koshiro Onchi. At some point I will do some posting on Taiwanese printmakers, as there is also a strong history nationally of the technique also. Most likely under of the influence of Onchi, Yamaguchi experimentally applied materials such as leaves and other objects to his woodblocks, and this is evident in one of the works I have featured here.
Yamaguchi's works are mostly notable for the artist's style and the muted colours. His works seem almost meditative, and although they are not vibrant experiments in colour, there is something calming about them. You could almost suggest that there is a touch of Buddhism in his works, but in fact for most of his life Yamaguchi was Christian (although his upbringing was Buddhist). In many ways Yamaguchi's works are interesting because they are not characteristic of Japanese printmaking of the time he worked and there is a kind of fidelity and spirit that suggests something more akin to economy of spirit. His works are therefore, a little hard to characterise, as he is not really a realist and his works are not universally abstract either. There are parts of his works that are lifted completely out of the field of realism, and then other parts that are very realistic.
Mostly he is famous today for his inventiveness and experimental nature, and these aspects of his works as well as the decorative aspect of his compositions, I like very much. His works are enriched by his various processes and as a result they are always complimentary in allusion, and worth a look.

Bertha Lum (America 1869-1954)

2011-05-03T18:52:00.015+08:00

It is with great trepidation I write on Bertha Lum, who was born in Tipton, Iowa in 1869 (it's not entirely known as she was known for changing the year of her birth) as Bertha Boynton Bull, and died in Genoa, Italy in 1954. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute and married Burt Lum who was a lawyer in 1903. They took their honeymoon in Japan, and let's just say, she fell in love. She returned to Japan in 1908 and 1911 to study the Japanese woodcut. She lived in Minneapolis until 1916, and afterwards in San Francisco. Her first trip to Beijing was made in 1922, with several more until taking up permanent residence there. She returned to live in the United States in 1940, then went back to Beijing from 1948 to 1953. In 1953 she went to Italy and died at her daughter Catherine's home in Genoa in 1954.

The reason of course I mention that it is with trepidation is because Lum evokes massive support from connoisseurs and many of the rest of us are inclined to wonder why she is so in demand. The truth is people pay great prices for these prints because when Lum moved away from the chocolate box style, she made masterful works. In the case of the Japanese and Chinese prints created by Lum, there is more than just the strangeness of the mode and the visual appeal. In fact, the best works by Lum, are things so wonderful that it may be another hundred years before we can truly appreciate the subtle beauty and poetry of her works. One of the main problems of course, is that the majority of her works that appear on the market are the pastiche pieces that are simpler, easier to understand and far less complex than the works I have featured in this posting. That is not to say that the works that often appear on the market are second-rate or inferior, but they are far less appealing to me.

Among all of the splendid American artists who mastered the technique, Lum, I am now prepared to admit....was amongst the most splendid. Her works are far more appealing than many of the other works by Dow or Fletcher, and a plethora of other artists in the technique. The greater part of her works are devoted to geographic and cultural aspects of China and Japan, and they are in many ways, a very complete and illuminating record of what was known of both countries at that time. Keeping in mind, the Far East was more than just a distant continent, Asia was virtually unknown by the West (and I might suggest still today..outside of cliches and noodles). There is something so very sad about the fact that her best works are rarely seen, and she was in many ways a pioneer of the technique and the style.

Keeping in mind the majority of her works were created prior to World War I and World War II, there is something even more astonishing about her works. Whilst Japan and China were not great powers during the time she lived in both countries, Lum appreciated the lost arts and poetry of both nations and in some ways she exceeded many of the local artists of the period. I have often been quite critical of Lum's works, but I am also willing to admit, I was wrong in my appraisal.

When I see the cultural and historical aspects of Lum's works I am all too aware of the fact that the whole process she worked in and the adventurous spirit that she showed, was rare then, and virtually dead today. Modern "civilization" acts upon art and aesthetics and not always in a way that is positive. One hundred years ago, Bertha Lum, despite the suppressions of modern society that curbed most women from entering into anything more than matrimony and motherhood, was creating works that were rich and fascinating. Lum's works captured society and life that was clearly happy and deeply connected with their own past and heritage. Today we associate those two countries with factories, technology and a humourless existence, and although it may be the case for many people...when I look at the works of Lum, I realize I can never leave Asia.

Harold Mallette Dean (America, 1907–1975)

2011-04-27T18:49:00.002+08:00

Perhaps one of the finest modernist American printmakers was also a muralist, illustrator and a painter. Upon moving to San Francisco in 1927, he enrolled at CSFA where he was greatly influenced by Ray Boynton and received the Anne Bremer Scholarship. During the 1930s he was active on the Federal Public Works of Art Project and one of 26 artists commissioned to paint murals in Coit Tower. Beginning in 1935 he illustrated books for Grabhorn Press for about 15 years. Dean taught printmaking at the CSFA and, after moving to Marin County, at Marin Jr. College. Biographic outlines are ultimately boring however, art, whether conveyed by graver or brush. Unless that is, it's perfection makes us oblivious to the infinite trouble and patience expended in the constructing of it.

For American wood engravers, in my opinion, few outshine Dean. He has it all, the technical proficiency to execute such markings, scratchings, pickings or scoopings on the block that do not only seem wonderful, they are symbolic of an outstanding artist. The special demand for subjects to be engraved are testament to the skill of Dean, but the chiefest of all things which modified and motivated this engraver was his imagination. With the simplest of elements, black and white, a wide or a narrow touch of the graver of making the lights and shadows and of varying effects, permit us an understanding of shade and line and meaning in the image. Within the limited area of a square inch there are clearly many hours of patient toil. Lines may be crossed and recrossed and still the works are stunning. Dean's pure modernist images achieve excellence and show him to be a stunning interpreter of landscape and the California coastline.

Dean mastered the subtlest effects of the line, pure and simple and this perfection extends through the totality of his work. There is likely much more about Dean that I am ignorant of, but sometimes, the finished product is all you need to know.

Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松紫浪) (Japan1898 - 1991)

2011-04-24T17:13:00.009+08:00

Anthony has left a comment on the previous posting that I think deserves a place in the main body of the blog, partly because he is perfectly correct and partly because it is succinct enough to cut to the heart of the matter. I have added it here because it ties in perfectly with the works of Kasamatsu who was a print artist in the manner of Shinsui, Hasui and of course Yoshida. Kasamatsu was born in Tokyo, and became a pupil of Kaburaki Kiyokata in 1911.

He initially studied painting in the 'Nihonga' manner and took up landscape. It was this side of his work which attracted the attention of the publisher Watanabe, who commissioned his first print from him in 1919. I have written at length on Watanabe and Kasamatsu was another artist who went out and did the paintings for which the blocks and later prints were based. Kasamatsu worked regularly for Watanabe until the fifties. His works are different from many of his counterparts, because rather than the rural idyll, Kasamatsu tended to create works that were urban and this in particular made his work popular with Westerners. His 'Shinobazu Pond' has been extensively reprinted by the firm of Watanabe since it first appeared in 1932.

Again referencing Anthony's comments, Kasamatsu became interested in the visual constructs of the Sosaku Hanga movement and it was then he began to produce his own prints. His Sosaku Hanga works were usually larger and often abstracted ideas. They were never in competition with anything he did for Watanabe. His prints are relatively scarce, and again were largely done for the international market rather than for the domestic one. At the time, Japan was still labouring under the post-reconstruction and most Japanese had little interest in the style or the art. He also worked in the 1950s for Unsodo of Kyoto, but in my opinion those works are not in the same league as his earlier works.

The Yoshida Blues

2011-04-22T15:00:00.004+08:00

Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950), after Urushibara, is probably the most famous of all 20th Century Japanese printmakers. He is an intersting artist because his works span the Meiji, Taisho and the Showa period, all of which were tumultuous in their own ways, and periods of great change in Japan. His early prints were actually created by Watanabe, who I have written about before. Watanabe also made the prints for Pieter Irwin Brown, Charles Bartlett and a number of other artists, both domestic and foreign. His later ones however, were made himself, but that is not the most important or interesting aspect of Yoshida. Whenever I encounter opinions of critics and connoisseurs of the woodblock printmaking tradidion, I am always struck by the attitudes that people have for the Japanese printmakers. There are a handful of Japanese print artists who have universal respect, and one of these is Hiroshi Yoshida.

Yoshida was not the first 20th Century Japanese artist of the woodblock to depart from the conventional standard of illuminated sheets or illustrations, but he is still commonly seen as one of the finest. His best designs are masterpieces of composition and colour, with the spaces and the lines achieving a wonderful combination of balance and contrast together with great simplicity of general effect. Part of the simplicity of effect was done via colour, and Yoshida used the vivid Japanese blue to great effect. Yoshida's firm, beautiful line that sweeps over the contours of geography or temples unfailingly suggest a lack of potential motion, nothing will change. There is a suggestion in the works of Yoshida, that if you went to the same locations he captured, there will be no change, and although his works are principally distinguished by grace, delicacy and vibrancy of colour and touch, he was also capable of strength.

Yoshida is generally famed for his rather graceful compositions, and his precise execution (which I have already mentioned cannot not always be attributed to the man himself) but the end result is often the same. A certain sophistication and opulence of feeling. Shigenaga is often attributed with the giant distinction of producing the first dated, and possibly first colour print, but he is remembered by me as being an important link between the forcible Torii school and grace of Masanobu. Yoshida was an important link also, between the old and the new, between rigidly local and triumphantly international. Passing over a number of other artists, most of whose work are never as admirable technically or artistically, we often arrive at Yoshida.

Why do we always arrive at Yoshida? Perhaps of all the artists of the 20th Century Japanese print, his works are the most radiant and his colours are as pure as his draughtmanship, and although I do not know when he took over from Watanabe in making his own prints, there is a singular charm in all his works. The fact that there is no discernible change in his prints after he takes over, shows an artist who was attentive to every detail. If you look at the prints I have used to illustrate this posting you will see that the balance of colour is nothing less than perfection in each of his prints. His use of the blues, adds a curiously soft richness to the general effect of his works and not only are the purity and harmony of the colour extraordinary, it is his attention to detail and refinement of the image. He manages to create the thread of technical complexity and colour to most of his works.

Don't be fooled, I am not a universal fan of Yoshida, and I think some of his works lack depth and don't always bring my praise. However, I think in many ways Yoshida was one of the true masters of the print, and it is hard to find a group of his prints that fail to impress the observer with a deeper sense of the dignity of the art employed, and the skill of Yoshida. The other thing that Yoshida always does, which many failed to incorporate, was his astonishing attention to detail. Together with the technical efficiency that made use of the complicated woodblock and multi-colour printing, prove that Yoshida was at the peak of the full development of the woodblock.

Masuo Ikeda (Japan 1934-1997)

2011-04-21T14:08:00.010+08:00

Well I have returned to the modern Japanese printmaking movement, this time with Masuo Ikeda who was born in 1934 Mukden, (Manchuria) to Japanese parents. His family moved back to Japan after the war, but between 1966-1981 Ikeda lived primarily in US. He returned to Japan in 1981, by which time he was an international star for his woodcuts, lithographs, screenprints, etchings. Ikeda is unusual because his voice was distinctive and clear at a time when many Japanese were struggling to build lives in post-war Japan.

Whilst a a student at the National Painting Association Fine Arts Research Institute in Tokyo, he joined the avant-garde circle around Ei Kyu and it was Ei Kyu who persuaded Ikeda to experiment with copper-plate etching in 1956. It proved to be a rather rewarding suggestion because Ikeda won a series of prizes at the Tokyo International Print Biennials and other exhibitions, thereafter. After this it was a short step to international stardom, which came when The Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a one-person exhibition of Ikeda's work in 1965.

Ikeda's works are fascinating because unlike many artists of the time, who were slaves to a rather narrow aestheticism, Ikeda was creating something vibrant and alive, almost like a proto-Pop Art, as early as the mid-fifties. Whilst many artists in the fifties were focused on movements, true gestures, landscapes and human beings, virtually everything that Ikeda created came purely from imagination. What an imagination it was too. With the tools and artistic skills, Ikeda was free to his true self, and it with this imagination and gift of fantasy and invention, he enabled himself to produce both an enormous amount of work, and wonderfully executed work.

In some ways, Ikeda's works are all the more extraordinary when taken as a comparison of work being created in New York and Tokyo at the same time. His works are audacious in line and although he used colour sparingly, when he did, they were stunning. Many of the artists of the period did not really seek to express themselves, and for that reason the fifties was a slightly stultifying period for art. It wasn't universally the case of course, but a great deal of the art from the period lacks movement or force. By the end of the sixties, Ikeda was a bona fide star of the print internationally.

Ikeda is largely forgotten today, but I find that his works stand the test of time and still quite wonderful. They are the works of an artist who loved movement and contrast. Not many artists had or have the kind of passion for those two aspects of art, but Ikeda understood the powerful use of movement and contrast and he used it to good effect.

Ryohei Tanaka (田中良平) (Japan 1933 - )

2011-04-16T14:12:00.007+08:00

Tanaka was born in 1933 in Takatsuki, Osaka prefecture and studied at the famed Kyoto College of Fine Arts under Yoshio Furuno beginning in 1963. Tanaka has since then gone on to be something of a star of the print. He is in rare group of Japanese printmakers, in that his works are almost exclusively etchings and aquatints. His power is in his assimilation of the topic, into something more than simply a reflection of the object. Tanaka's works ultimately seem to be more like received impressions of an object and the analysis is left to us, rather than the artist doing it for us. There is a mastery to this style of work because the object is subordinated to a personal style, but we can interpret the line and the mood of the image.

There was a strong post-war movement in printmaking that I think is worth exploring. Tanaka is not the first or the master of this, but often with Asian artists, the idea is better adapted. Instead of attempting to show us the depths of a view or an object, many artists trained in the 50's and 60's were encouraged instead to avoid being photographic in their works. They were encouraged instead to develop their own interpretation and experiment with using techniques that helped to explore the idea, image or item. Sometimes the end result can be baffling, but at the same time, each new generation has something to say. Tanaka's works have something to say. His works are shadowy and delicate, and this probably explains his elevated prices in the market. There is a certain discretion of revelation, a certain modesty that is apparent in the works of Tanaka. The aquatint technique he uses, works to good effect in his images, because there is no artifice, and despite the monochromatic aspect of his work, there is depth.

The works of Tanaka also have something more that is interesting. As a Japanese artist he does what many artists raised in a Sino-Confucian influenced society do, working in a mood of intensity with the nature of the object portrayed. There is more than interpretation at work here, Tanaka's work almost seem to have an intense sympathy with the very nature of the object of scene captured.

Although I am not always a huge fan of printmakers of the 21st Century, I am not entirely sure it is based on aesthetics or my belief that from 1900-1940 was the peak of printmaking in Western countries. It seems to me that the period was the highest point of intellectual expression in printmaking, and comparing prices often leads me back to Boxsius, Broad and Giles. I have of course mentioned my favourite contemporary artists (Pasin Sloan) but Tanaka, in many cases, is instantly appealing. A man who shows fine technique and an outstanding grip of the medium.

Often with Asian artists, and art, what impresses me more is not the topic itself, rather, the expression and luminous quality of the work itself. In weighing the different ideals as represented by Western and Asian art, I cannot help but think that Asian art's focus on a subjective individuality often beats the Western preoccupation with capturing the moment.

Dr. Emma Bormann

2011-04-15T14:30:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Emma Bormann's grandson, Andreas, there is more information about this outstanding printmaker in the form of a biographical summary that has been published in the bulletin of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG) in Tokyo.

Kaminski, Gerd. “Ein Name, der mit grossen Zeichen zu schreiben ist: Emma Bormann.” OAG Notizen, January 2009.

The article can be accessed online at: www.oag.jp/images/publications/oag_notizen/Notizen_0901_Feature_Kaminski.pdf.

It summarizes material from Kaminski’s book (Der Pinsel hinterlässt Spuren. Das Vermächtnis von Emma Bormann. Vienna: ÖGCF, 2006. Berichte des Österreichischen Institutes für China- und Südostasienforschung Nr. 49) and includes reproductions.

Thank you Andreas, not simply for sharing the information but being part of keeping her legacy alive.

Erik Desmaziéres (France 1948 - )

2011-04-14T13:55:00.009+08:00

Erik Desmaziéres is perhaps one of the world's finest printmakers today, and his works on paper are symphonies in complexity and line. Desmazières was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1948 and resides in Paris. He is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and studied printmaking at the Cours du Soir de la Ville de Paris.

He has served as president of La Societe des Peintres Graveurs Francais and his works are still sought after today. The French can be counted upon to carry through a difficult technical process with judgement and that manual dexterity and precision which springs forth from the Gallic ability to make the hand serve the head and the eye. This little sample of works by Desmaziéres serves only to show that even today there are artists whose works serve as little monuments to technical capacity as well as to the imagination.

I usually spend time focused on printmakers but it isn't always the case. The best examples of prints and printmakers are often contributed by artists from another century and aesthetic, but that isn't always the case. Desmaziéres creates splendid works that are neither flexible nor free, and instead show an artist who is fastidious in his attention to detail and clearly an artist of startling vision. His interiors are both architectural and artistic, and his works produce atmosphere. His atmospheric rendering of the city over roofs is wonderful. The mere replication of a view with such depth and beauty is however, a small part of an artist's task. He gives our eyes a journey with lines, and composition and he has veiled the sharper outlines of the cityscape with soft arches and misty skies.

His internal views are witty and a fascinating blend of hard straight lines and soft curves. The mixture of domestic and industrial is also fun, and juxtaposition of the topics and the lines make for good art. Desmaziéres is already a sought after artist and his works are in many fine art collections, galleries and museums, and rightly so.

Mini Have and Hang

2011-04-07T11:50:00.006+08:00

Nothing much to share regarding gifts on Ebay, but a lovely pair of Eric Hesketh Hubbard colour woodblocks, both signed and beautifully coloured with his caravan life topic. This was the topic that EHH loved, and these are appealing because it was clearly a topic he liked. Cheap right now, but throw your hat in to the ring, before some smarty pants tells the seller who they are...(you know there is ALWAYS one). http://cgi.ebay.com/Pair-of-Arts-and-Crafts-Woodcut-and-Block Prints_W0QQitemZ230606316707QQcategoryZ360QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8277972873754559034

Arminius Hasemann ( Germany 1888 -1979 )

2011-04-06T20:56:00.000+08:00

Arminius Hasemann attended the Arts and Crafts Museum School in Berlin and later studied at the Grand Duchy of Baden art school in Karlsruhe, where he studied sculpture and graphics . In 1912, he exhibited at the Berlin Secession. Although he is still widely recognised still in Germany, for most of us who live in non-German speaking parts of the world, he is largely unknown. His Art Nouveau printmaking is astonishingly modern and doesn't look particularly dated even today. He was a member of the Karlsuhe School, at a time when one of the aims of the school was the improvement of commercial art.

Hasemann was part of that movement and the idea behind it was the bettering of the design and exectution of the design in things as mundane as tickets, programmes, posters and the most common form used, was the lithograph. That isn't to say that it was the only technique used, because many of the members of the Karlsruhe school found printmaking expression in a variety of methods. Hasemann was unusual because his artistic ideas and ideals were not limited in any way, and one of his favorite techniques for transmission of his aesthetic quest was books and magazines. Hasemann's work went beyond ideas and aesthetics and he created a great deal of fascinating and visually exciting work. In many ways his works are unique because at a time when many artists were focused on a commercial product with simplifications of line, Hasemann was doing something very different.

Of the Karlsruhe group, Hasemann is not usually considered one of the strongest or most important, but for my money his technical facility and his tendency toward a very visual and decorative make him a star. Hasemann completely freed himself from many of the limitations of printwork and he evolved for himself a formula of line and movement that expressed something very different from what was being created at the time. Hasemann's figures are beautiful, and seem to bring out the poetry of the circus or the folk stories he used as his inspiration.

Hasemann delights in the decorative, and he is not, in any sense, a realist. For Hasemann it is a love of the ornamental form and in some of his works they even suggest a kind of architectural ornament. The touch of fantasy and of decorative instinct make Hasemann an under-rated and undervalued artist for many non-German lovers of the print.

Erlund Hudson (Britain 1912 - 2011 )

2011-03-31T06:38:00.000+08:00

I have decided to repost this appraisal of Erlund Hudson because of her recent passing. Perhaps it is indeed time for her to have her moment in the sun, and the rightful reappraisal which recognises her skill and vision. Hudson was a British artist who was born and raised in Devon, and studied at the Royal College under Robert Austin and Malcolm Osborne. I have reproduced this rather wonderful and much more interesting biography of Hudson which was published in the Daily Mail, written by Robert Hardman (January 31st, 2007). Hudson is mostly forgotten now but more's the pity. "Working in a London emergency centre, she drove a converted laundry van to bomb sites where she made copious amounts of tea for rescuers and victims. She never painted these scenes, though. "I painted life, not death," she explains firmly at her Notting Hill home, just a few yards from her old wartime headquarters. She, too, had recently left the Royal College of Art and was on a travelling scholarship in Italy as war loomed. She made it home with a week to spare. A childhood spinal injury disqualified her from conventional war work so she went to help her brother, a Leicestershire vicar with a very sick wife and a large young family.

It was there that she produced a series of paintings and drawings of the war effort, many of them engaging narrative pieces featuring the bustling ladies of Leicestershire making bandages, pyjamas and balms for the Forces. Erlund, known to all as Eleanor, was not part of the Recording Britain project. But her work so impressed the Official War Artists' Scheme that several pieces were bought for the Imperial War Museum, where they still reside, and she thereby became, officially, a war artist. She returned to London where her ability to drive secured her a job running a canteen van to assist rescue teams.

"I remember when Troy Court in Kensington was hit by a flying bomb, a terrible business. Lots of bodies being bundled out. "This nice American soldier was terribly shocked after pulling out bodies and insisted on helping me with my canteen because it reminded him of his mother's kitchen back home." The worst carnage was when she went to visit her mother in Torquay following a raid in which a German bomber had wiped out an entire Sunday school. "I saw this little boy dangling in a tree," she recalls. "I could never walk past that tree again. And I could certainly never paint it." After the war, these women all went on to enjoy successful artistic careers. Erlund made her name painting ballet scenes...."

Of course this is what Erlund is most famous for, but she also designed costumes and sets for the ballet, and she was a fantastic printmaker, whose etchings are soft, tender and beautifully rendered. Behind the biography though is an artist who created wonderful print work, and whose tutelage at the RCA was well spent. Her examples of work from the interwar period are fascinating, because she used a remarkable amount of detail and the works are wonderfully expressive. Hudson also clealy had a regard for the elegance of form and sensitiveness of line, her power of suggesting distance and of concentrating the attention upon one chief feature in her compositions without sacrificing the value of the rest, is an important skill.

Her apprecaition of that certain quality in a place that differentiates it from all other places in the world at that time, give her works their own inimitable character. Her technical skill was, simply excellent. Her works can be characterized, as senstive and candid, but also refined. I cannot help but think also that Hudson has a certain Anglo sense of humour that, when exercised was wonderfully expressed. When she turned her focus to people, the scenes are both simple and sympathetic and her figures are always expressed in interesting perspectives.

Hudson is mostly forgotten today, and when her name is recalled, it is for her paintings and work in the ballet, but in my opinion, her etchings are at the very peak of British art in the 30's and early 40's and more than that, her works capture perfectly the the skill and comfort of British art in the interwar period.

Sepp Frank (Austria 1889 - 1969) )

2011-03-30T17:48:00.002+08:00

The artist Sepp Frank was born in 1889 as Frank Joseph August in Miesbach. Soon, Sepp Frank moved to the Munich, and whilst there he changed his name and completed an arts degree. However, his oeuvre was in many ways, the applied arts area, and he was a main proponent of modernism in printmaking. In addition to printmaking, he also created glass work and puppets, and was a sought after "ex libris" graphic designer and printmaker.

As far as visual language, both the bookplate and the other graphic sheets by Sepp Frank committed themselves to a figurative view of the present with its precisely drawn characters, the sharp-set light-dark contrasts and its wealth of detail vivid pictorial inventions, they are both enchanting and terrifying, but always perfectly executed.

Frank's etchings and block printing are forms of artistic expression that are not exactly in favour or fashion now, but his works are still considered outstanding, because of his complicated and decorative style. His works in some ways are very appealing because they are so wonderfully Germanic, in that they are precise, focused on details, and yet also express something bold. Not for Frank, the schematic translations of nature or characters from the classical period. Sepp Frank was clearly a serious worker who was interested in the legitimate resources of his medium and developed it with a relatively high degree of skill. Like so many German and Austrian artists, they are not only worth looking at for pleasure, but well worth studying for their technical side. Frank's works were at the front of avant garde in Germany and Austria during the late nouveau and early deco period. His works are also a little eccentric and when looked at in a group as I have shown them here, they can also seem a little elaborately puzzling. Despite this, his works are skillful and clearly show a technical brilliance of the etcher's medium.

Arthur Rigden Read (Britain 1879 - ) active ca. 1900-1930

2011-03-29T06:19:00.002+08:00

Arthur Ridgen Read was largely a wood engraver of landscapes and figure subjects. Born in London in September 1879, he was exhibited widely in London, the provinces and abroad. Read's handsome prints, while they do not always indicate the deilcacy or richness of the works of Giles and many other of his British compatriots, ultimately his works lay in a different direction of sincerity.

Read's accomplishment is that in many cases he takes a hard and complicated technique and nevertheless uses to express gestures and features of characters and express a feeling both in his landscapes and his animal studies. Many artists avoided treatment of the face in any setting, and if they did, they often did so as a mask. Read is complicated however, because, where his portraits are expressive and hold character, how other works have a meticulous dullness that is also representative of his works. I don't have any problem with this, because apart from portraiture, you don't want or seldom want types, symbols or suggestions.

You could never say that Arthur Rigden Read was not a serious artist, or serious about art, because it is clear in his woodblocks he takes his art seriously. Read is thoroughly in possession of his medium, and it is clear he can turn easily from one subject to another without missing the light distinction of style characteristic of his personal talent. His landscapes also tend to be more mannered than his portraits, and it is interesting that he avoids shadow.

Instead, it seems that Read favoured accents made by patterns or blocks of colour. His works vary from the vivacious to a sense of the monumental and it is interesting that he still has a great deal of popularity in the market. Are his works always to my taste? No, not at all but they are at once scrupulous and imaginative and equals many a dexterous printmaker during the Edwardian period.

William Strang by way of Alfons (Alphonse) Legros

2011-03-26T15:34:00.001+08:00

The etchings of William Strang are often closely associated with his very famous teacher, Alpohonse Legros. Strang was an outstanding printmaker, and his dry points, etchings and mezzotints are fascinating. In his day he was primarily an illustrator and also dabbled in wood-engraving, a couple I have included here. It is easy to see which is which.

Legros went to England in 1863 at the ripe old age of twenty-six, but the most interesting thing about him was that despite his residence in England, there is little about his work that was English. The English peasants and the English beggars are oddly like French peasants and beggars, and this was created very much with an unconscious hand. Legros always had a deft hand, and his inclination was to work using etchings and dry points. Legros often found himself interested in those very French topics, death, famine, poverty and people in medieval stories in which death figures as a skeletal apparition or at times, the good old grim reaper complete with scythe. They are strikingly different from the way Strang presented the same topics, and for my money, I prefer Strang. They make for interesting art, and the impression one has from the works of Legros, is quite different than those of his famed student. However, the reality is, both were trying to do very different things. Strang, in my opinion was more intent on telling us a story, and he also had far more versatility than Legros, who was prone to slightly morose and melancholy images that were wrapped up in overly extravagant flourishes.

In portraits however, the pupil surpassed the master. Legros seemed to have a rather narrow limitation but within them, his work was always worthy of respect. Of course it was with respect that Legros found himself in London in the first place, as the Slade Professor of Art . Legros wasn't the first or last French artist with a preference for depicting the poor and disenfranchised of society, and it was a taste and style, in perhaps the same style and taste German artists had for Germanic folk tales and the British had for sentimentalizing landscapes. Millet was another example, and another master of the print.

Legros always outdid the English however, in the area of somberness and a heavy handed sentimentalization. Though he was a naturalized citizen of Britain and considered to be a British artist and teacher, he was certainly not given the same universal admiration as other British artists of the time. Perhaps this is why Legros often tried to outdo the artists of his adopted homeland in rhapsodizing and heavy handed sentimentality. It didn't always work. One more thing that perhaps alienated Legros from his British audience was the topic. Many of his etchings deal with monks, saints, church ceremonies and the like, but not in a good natured way, or even in a refined dignified observational note of British artists. For Legros it was all a bit too devout and a level of Catholicism that was probably not likely to strike a chord with the locals.

Overall, the works of Strang for me, have more resonance and value, and his ability to capture the moment in a story is both interesting and appealing. The big test however, is that Strang's works look as fresh and vivid today as they did when he created them. The same, alas, cannot be said for Legros.

Augustus John and the Eye of the Beholder.

2011-03-24T06:43:00.000+08:00

Augustus John was one of the most controversial artists in a period where sameness was the order of the day. He was one of the most exceptional artists of his day, but over time his fame became associated with his unconventional habits and interesting domestic life, more than his art. There was no more talked about artist than John, and he was considered the founder of a new movement. He was Welsh by birth and chose to spend the majority of his life there living a caravan life with a large family. Whilst in London his studio could be found in the very heart of bohemian folk at that time, in Chelsea.

John is hard to locate information on, because he so steadfastly refused to be interviewed. He is also unusual because he had very little formal training, and the only place he did receive training was at the Slade School of Art. At that time drawing was the chief skill that Slade taught, and at that time students were most commonly expected to understand and study the old masters. John took his lessons well, and accepted his direction to the old masters as being part of his training. However, John famous admitted that whilst he lived in Paris he never studied in schools so he said "I was uncorrupted and later had nothing to undo." Something tells me that "uncorrupted" is probably a tad hyperbolic. He never spoke much of Slade but he spoke often of France, and was one of the many British artists who fell in love with Normandy and the picturesque towns and peasants of the region. Although he fell in love with the area, he also found that there was plenty and more than enough in Wales for him. He admitted he was not a member of any definite school, and was known for his dislike of the Post-Impressionist movement (a movement to which his work is often categorized).

John was intrigued and interested in Matisse, but was also dismissive of Matisse's "grasp on matters" but acknowledged that Matisse had a strong decorative sense and sometimes the touch of a dreamlike quality. He once famously said of Matisse "He cannot draw at all".

When he was asked, he was more than direct in his appraisal, and more than happy to share his opinion, but perhaps that is why he was not always forthcoming in giving them in the first place. John loved Whistler but hated Pennell and credited visiting the National Gallery as being his greatest inspiration. John however decried the habit of the period when artists would set up around museums and galleries and paint, draw and etch within the walls of majesty, forgetting to go outside and capture the life that was around them. The shortfall of this Victorian/Edwardian habit was that the artist forgot to appreciate the "common aspects of life." For John it was the impulse of life that needed to sway the artist not the influence of the great masters or lines of beauty hung on walls. "An artist is not essentially a man of culture; if he has it, so much the better. He then has extraordinary kinship with the world at large."

For many years, John basically gave up etching, which was to the detriment of art, because there is a consensus that at the time there were no finer artists in the technique. His paintings were often considered to be brutal by the critics of the time who didn't always embrace his works. His etchings and portraits however were always sought after. He once described Rembrandt as his first great "Director" and it can be seen in the works he created on paper. They are usually of heads and figures, each bursting with character and feeling and exquisitely detailed and refined. Of Slade, I suspect John would give little credit, but of his innate skill at capturing the true person....no doubt he could wax lyrical.

The Eyes of Laura Knight

2011-03-22T05:51:00.000+08:00

Laura Knight was famed for a decided diversity of style, medium and techniques. She is mostly remembered as a painter, but I like to think of her as a skilled artist who understood the simplicity and suggestion of line. The lines I have chosen to focus on today were the ones she created to capture the face and emotion. Knight suggested emotion and age by a few judiciously chosen lines and the technical ingenuity to produce such stunning pieces.

Her conscientiously exact portraits show that Knight was one of the true stars of world art. The thing that is so wonderful about Knight, is that she takes a natural, observant and real style of those people she captured. She was a keen observer, but perhaps one of the most striking things about Knight is that she comes from a very different place of English art, which I think is rooted in truth and character rather than grace and loveliness.

Many British artists artists working during the same period as Knight were inclined to believe that the most successful portraits were due to the attractiveness and the distinction of the face...and by that we can often read "breeding". Knight, wasn't interested, she wanted the people of the carnivals and fair, and the travelling community. Many other artists worked up to a preconceived high ideal of beauty and forced the sitters into that ideal. For Knight, what matter if her lady had unshapely hands? She didn't require tapering fingers or swan-like necks. She didn't need the ideal of perfect proportions of gracefulness. Laura Knight took modern British portraiture with honesty mixed with skill and the need to capture the true beauty as recorded with speed and accuracy and of course her well-documented capabilities.

I wonder if I am the only one who looks at portraits of women and I am often struck by the sameness of all the works, as though they were of the same woman. I can determine the period based on hair and clothing, so I can pick the Edwardian woman over the Regency woman, but basically it seems they all sprang from the same ancestor.

This common ancestor seems to be a lovely dream and a man's ideal of a beautiful woman, that so many men were taught about in art school. The best artists who can capture women in the most striking natural way, is almost always women. They don't have their ideal and they don't think that women sprang from the head of Zeus. Laura Knight had an ideal too....her ideal was the regular woman. The woman who worked; who danced; who played the piano; who went to the circus. There are countless versions of that woman but each time, Knight captured her.

Aloys Wachlmayr, (Austria 1892-1940)

2011-03-21T09:18:00.008+08:00

Aloys Wachlmayr was born in Lambach in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire, and he undertook his initial training in Vienna. After Vienna, he moved to Munich and began studying with Knirr and Saile. The Munich style is immediately evident in his works, and he used fairly flat printing inks with onion type paper.

By 1913 he had made a move to the Academie Colarossi in Paris and then returned to Germany, more specifically Stuttgart studying under Altherr. Wachlmayr was fascinated by the idea of expressionism, and this interest is barely hidden in his avant garde linocuts. His works caught the attention of many of the small journals dealing with the new wave of art in the Weimar period, and at varying times he was employed or worked with Expressionist journals including Das Kunstblatt, Der Weg, Die Aktion, Der Sturm, Der Zweemann und Die Schaffenden.

From 1919 Wachlmayr maintained a permanent residence in Braunau but for two years (1925 & 1926) he stayed in Rome. In 1930 and 1933 he was commissioned to create glass windows for the hospital church in Braunau. After the annexation of Austria he was forbidden to paint. Needless to say, his works were not to the taste of the National Socialists, and he was villified and alienated. He wasn't able to make it through to the end of the war and died in relative isolation.

Takumi Shinagawa （品川工） (Japan 1908 - 2009)

2011-03-20T18:14:00.004+08:00

Shinagawa was born in Niigata Prefecture and it was this part of Japan that helped to develop his interest in classical arts. He originally studied metalwork and many other crafts at Tokyo City Craft School but got interested in 'Shin Zokeishugi' (New Formative) painting and printmaking, and became a pupil of Onchi to whom he went for advice and who encouraged him to make prints. Shinagawa did achieve a great respect and some fame in his time, but because of his disinterest in market values and the commercial nature of art, he didn't reach dizzying heights. He was also able to capture movement although most of his works seem to capture the light of the dawn or dusk or an approaching storm, when he did it, he did it well. This piece is stunning

At his best, Shinagawa created truly breathtaking pieces with motion, fluidity and the idea of shade and colour. I would say that these prints are very Japanese in both composition and colour. I love it, but I can also see that it might not have captured the market of the UK and North America. It has a distinct Japan style to it with the decorative background, quite evocative of other Japanese artists of the period who also worked in woodblock,but whose works didn't always speak to a Western audience. Shinagawa certainly achieved some Western fame by being included in Statler's 'Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn' (1956) and Michener's portfolio 'The Modern Japanese Print. An Appreciation' (1962). I have added a very Western image influenced by Matisse just as a little bit of contrast.

I would be remiss not to mention the terrible earthquake and subsequent destruction in Tohoku, and I do ask readers, to find a place to make a donation, with either your favourite NGO or the Red Cross. I used to live in that area, when I first went to Japan, and although it was quiet and largely rural, it was the generosity of the people of Ishinomaki that made me stay a decade in Japan.

To Have and To Hang Part Deux

2011-03-08T14:16:00.007+08:00

Well this posting will be a bit more eclectic, and not necessarily in the bargain bracket but worthy of mention nevertheless. Firstly a stunning Fred T Larson oil painting. Larson's memory and reputation has not really stood up to the test of time, but we should remember that he was one of the men who taught Gustave Baumann in the art of woodblock printing. His works are rare and this one I assume, is a piece from the 20's. I have to say it is a stunning piece and tremendously evocative of the period. It is not going to be bargain but it's not a scandalous price either.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310301033353&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I am not sure what to make of this Mary Fairclough, although the price sticks in my craw a little. With the tool to allow you to zoom in, it is easy to see Fairclough was a master at tone and a steady hand. I am not much for the topic and I find the price in the realm of hopeful, I have added it nevertheless. I think it is interesting as a study, and although I think the background with the oddly rendered horses makes it a bit amateurish, the portrait is lovely. As Charles over at Modern Printmakers has mentioned before, Fairclough had some interest in native Americans and there was a connection there. Anyway I leave it for you to look at and make of what you will.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160543845642&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Next a trio from Ernst Rötteken, the first one from Augsberg, Germany a slightly flat looking collection of poppies in a vase. Having said that, from a distance they are stunning, and I think it is testament to the artist's skill that they can look both flat and realistic yet everything is carved in the negative from wood.
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemnext&item=350444797191.html

Also from Germany another, subtler piece of Nasturtiums, which makes Hall Thorpe look like an art student. I think this piece is stunning, but of course you won't be stunned to know that the seller doesn't accept Paypal and therefore your purchase isn't protected.
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemnext&item=230593631924.html

Finally, from Potsdam in Germany, a seller who both has Paypal and ships worldwide. Hooray! To add to this good news this is one of Rötteken's most desirable prints, entitled Japanese Quince. I prefer the Nasturtiums, but I also prefer to have protection when I purchase rather than just transferring money to a stranger's bank account.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220748327495&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

From a wonderful seller who is selling an unsigned Ursula Fookes, and therefore giving you a chance to own a genuine Grosvenor School piece. I can assure you that the piece is indeed Ursula Fookes (you can quote me on it) and although it is unsigned, it is likely that it was either a test print or just printed and she never bothered to sign it (it happened a lot, especially with Fookes). This one is a slightly different colourway to the one I am used to and I actually prefer this one, than the one I am more familiar with, which is a slightly greenish tinged print and gives the entire image a slightly odd complexion. The price is a bargain, as the same print went for sale in London three years back for exactly 1000 USD!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220749493367&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Ludwig Jungnickel is famed as an animal artist, and his works were predominantly woodcuts or studies in lead. However this is a rather fine watercolour of a pair of pugs. It's not really to my taste, but since the price for this painting is a similar price to what his woodcuts go for, you are buying the name...although this seems to me to be the kind of painting on a dowager's wall next to her Georgian English platters and above her Sèvres lamps.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140520767284&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Another from Germany, a dealer who takes Paypal and ships abroad, a rather beautiful oil by Martin Nicolaus (1970 - 1945). This piece dates to around 1920 but I would probably suggest a little earlier than that based on the clothes, but regardless, it is a beautifully executed oil, and it is a steal at the price it currently stands at. The seller is a respected dealer who knows his stuff.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140518672875&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Also from Germany (I know, I know) a rather nicely executed nude, and Paypal and shipping worldwide.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250782340157&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Finally for today, sellers not from Germany but from Canada. From the same seller, a lovely pair of woodblocks, although the seller states they are wood engraving, I suspect they were in fact woodblock prints. Sydney Lee is vastly under-rated and some would say rightly so...however, his woodblock prints are charming and complex. These two are appealing, and although his colour woodcuts are particularly rare, these two are nice examples. Just as a note, the same seller has a vastly overpriced Brothers Morton woodcut "Spring Rhapsody".
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380318631946&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380318632388&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Nigel Lambourne (Britain 1919-1988)

2011-03-08T13:08:00.005+08:00

Nigel Lambourne was a printmaker and draughtsman whose works usually revolved around women. He was an illustrator, designer and teacher and after he studied at the Regent Street Poytechnic School of Art 1934-7 and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, he went on to study at the Royal College of Art 1937-9 with Robert Austin and Malcolm Osborne. It is probably this time that most changed his perspective and helped him to direct his work towards works on paper. After his studies were interrupted by war service he began teaching at Isleworth College. Although he is not as celebrated today as he should be, his works were included in the Festival of Britain exhibition 1950-51 which showcased all that was good and great in British technnology, design and creativity.
Lambourne's works were often included as illustrations in books which had a "classical" focus,most famously "Ovid's Amores". I wonder if Lambourne will ever receive the recognition he deserves but his works are wonderfully lyrical works should be recognised. These rather complex and visually wistful works are in fact woodcuts, although it is hard to believe.

An Unseen Armitage

2011-03-05T10:55:00.004+08:00

Ken in Britain has shared with us an unseen Jean Armitage woodcut. She was mostly famous for plant and bird studies, and they were popular for the short time she exhibited. "The title is 'Bottle Tits' these days they are known { in the UK } as long tailed tits but I suppose in the 1920/30s this may have been a local name due to their liking of chewing off the tin foil caps to get to the cream."

Thank you Ken.

To Have and to Hang

2011-03-02T13:46:00.005+08:00

Well it has been some time since I last posted on this topic, and it wasn't due to my laziness or busy work schedule, it was alas, due to the dearth of treasures. However this posting is not simply about individual items but it is also about specific sellers, who can be relied upong to have interesting pieces of art throughout the year. The same sellers can be trusted and relied upon be both professional and communicative. There is nothing worse than the feeling that a seller is being rude or bullying when you are in another time-zone or continent.

Today, this seller has a trio of works on paper by the vastly under-rated James Priddey. I have never quite understood why Priddey doesn't receive more recognition than he does, because he was certainly an outstanding artist. In some ways he missed the wave of etching madness because much of his recogition came after WWII. He was a Silver Medal winner at the Paris Salon in 1949, but that seems to count for little. Anyway, in my opinion, he is one of the last of the great British etchers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300531999350&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
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The sellers "peninky" are in fact the dealers of contemporary works on paper, Bellagraphica based in Cornwall. Now be aware that you will rarely find a bargain, but you will find real art. They are spasmodic (at least to me) regarding when they put their works on Ebay, but they have wonderful modern (usually) British pieces.

This week they have another of my favorite unsung British artists Janet Fisher, whose works you can find in the British Museum, and who I have posted about previously. Fisher's woodcuts are remarkable in their style, and more similar to the German techniques than to anything that was being produced in Britain at the time. The topics are often continental and this one is no different. It is a numbered and signed edition and if you want to read more about her you can type her name into the search engine on my blog and get my take on her. She is tremendously under rated, and this seller seems to have the largest catolgue of this tremendous and rare artist.
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The same dealers have a Hall Thorpe for those who like that sort of thing, and for comparison, they have a stunning Thomas Todd Blaylock woodcut, which firmly and beautifully shows that Blaylock was the superior of the pair in creating wonderful and cheery floral woodcuts. My personal preference is for the Blaylock, but I put them both here for comparison. Please no comments gently chiding me for being dismissive of Hall Thorpe, I don't care for him and it's my blog...but I understand he has a following. Finally from the same sellers, they have a stunning piece by William Giles entitled "When Winter Wanes". This is considered one of Giles' most famous works, although it isn't exactly to my taste, this edition seems to be in fairly spectacular condition. I think Giles can still be snapped up for reasonable prices and this one is not a bargain...however, it is a fair market price.
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One of my other favoured sellers is a wonderful Danish dealer, who comes up with an astonishing and wide variety of works on paper. He has recently posted two rather stunning works, both very different. One a rather fine charcoal portrait from the late 19th century, and the other an interesting 20's work. I find it interesting that the moment any many has a hat on, they are immediately labelled as "Dutch", as though no other men in no other countries in Europe wore hats. I often laugh. This "Dutch" lad looks more French to me, but that's my take on it. Both are intriguing and at that prices they currently stand, I doubt if it matters where the hat's from.
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This next piece is not going to be a steal but it is a stunning piece, and will go high. This seller always seems to find really extraordinary paintings and works of art. They know their stuff and they don't muck around. This Charles Lowcock is a stunning piece, and is worth a look at, or if you want to cancel your next vacation, bid!
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The same sellers have a lovely and appealing watercolour by David Cox. All the information for Cox can be found on the actual listing, and the item has a nice provenance also.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300530257359&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

A Gurschner returns to the Bay, and I have written about Gurschner before. It is currently cheap but for some reasons his prices go crazy. It is currently in normal but watch it at the end, no doubt you will gasp. I like his work, and think they are appealing, but not for the prices he fetches. It's like Charles Bartlett, I like his works but....
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One seller with two Hall Thorpes, and a pair of his more appealing pieces, and already heading into lala land. Interesting and appealing, but the prices defy reality. Anyway, for those who love him, fun to watch. The first one here, Bluebell Wood is a knock off of Charles Mackie in my opinion, the second is one his most appealing pieces and is now at 258 USD.
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Finally, a rather lovely Edwardian javelin thrower, and although it is not in pristine condition, this work by Alfred Walter Bayes, is both appealing and beautifully done. It is a conte crayon image and looks to me to be a study. It is lovely and Bayes was no amateur dabbler. Great price from a seller you needn't fear.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290537888178&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Anders Zorn (Sweden 1860 - 1920)

2011-02-22T15:52:00.000+08:00

Zorn is perhaps Sweden's most famous printmaker, although in his day he was more or less recognized for his paintings. Zorn's etchings had a kind of brilliance that I personally like a great deal. His observations were swift and accurate and his mood is virtually invariable. You can see it in his works, and especially his portraits. The impressions of his plates owe little to their printing, there is no delicate variation of mellow tone to enhance the effectiveness of the line. The strength and freedom of his lines are wonderful and enhance the protraits and his works. Zorn was fond of people, that is clear. He was fond of the face and the body in all of his works there is a delight and thrill in his works and the smiling faces and dappled skin in both sun and shade and the love he has of life.

Well....when I say "life" I think what I mean is "women". Zorn seemed very fond of women both the superficial and the physical, but there is nothing sexist or degrading here. His works are more about the vivacity of women the idea of beauty of nature. The etcher's point has never moved with more freedom or joy when capturing a face as it does in the hands of Zorn. There is a sense of abounding life in the works of Zorn and in some ways his works almost appear as photographs....that moment captured in time, the air and the sun and all the elements. The main subject of his portraiture is not the face, but the expression of life and youth. He loves the intelligence and inquiry of the face and the swift hatching of the faces, hair and forms.

In the early 1900's Zorn's etchings were amongst the most sought after in the art markets in New York and his portraits reached dizzying heights . Zorn was a huge star in Paris and Berlin and was at time compared to Renoir, Cezanne and Manet. However, there is a sufficient gulf between Zorn and the others mostly because it seems that there was a nonchalance in the works of Zorn compared to the zealousness and visual determination in the French and German artists of the time. The characteristic prevailing in the works of Zorn is that he is not overly concerned with the problems of the soul or the moods of nature. Zorn is focused on the life from the portraiture and his landscapes are also stunning.

Reginald Savage (Britain )

2011-02-21T15:47:00.009+08:00

Not a vast amount is known of Reginald Savage, although in the latter part of the Victorian period he was one of the most sought after illustrators, and specialised in the high end of the market. He was also well-known as being a teacher at Camberwell Art School during the early Edwardian period. He was, also known as one of the Pre-Raphaelite illustrators (not painters) and was important in his day. How exactly his works and his reputation have managed to vanish over the years is odd to me, but there you have it. I can find no specific dates for his birth and death, but I do know that he was teaching in 1909 and was an influential wood-cut printer in the latter part of the Victorian period. His works are both fanciful and complex and he was clearly a man not afraid of intricacy or whimsy. Most of the woodblocks I have here are images used for illustrating books, including classics and poetry.

Savage did a number of frontispieces for The Essex House Press, and was also sought after in the USA for their vibrant print industry. It appears that he also did illustrations and frontispieces for American writers and works about the Puritans. These books were of course sought after by the local American market but it also appears, that the division between good and bad copies in the USA was especially pronounced. Many of the Savage woodcut and wood engraved images were special volumes that were limited to less than 1000 copies.

Savage was a master at a time when books were required to be both pleasing to the eye and able to be differentiated. This didn't apply just to book covers or illustrations, but also the quality of the paper and the binding and the letter press. I have written about the importance of illustrations and publishing in the past, but I thought I should also mention that around the 1890's photography was an able auxiliary to the book illustration, and undoubtedly caused some artists to be more temperate in their designs, particularly those of covers and posters. Perhaps the most significant feature of this push in the publishing world was the eagerness in the public to buy more and more books. The various branches of writing gained something in quality during this period and a premium on lively impressions and vivid illustrations is something distinctly evident.

Birger Sandzén (USA. 1871 - 1954)

2011-02-20T13:41:00.009+08:00

Sandzén was born in Blidsberg, Sweden and emigrated to the USA and from 1894 he taught in Lindsborg, Kansas. Although he is usually remembered today as a printmaker, he was also a strong painter, but for this posting I will only address his printworks. One reason Sandzén is still highly regarded today as a printmaker in the USA is because of his brilliance and fresh perspective. Sandzén was a student of Anders Zorn who I will write about in my next posting, and perhaps the most obvious thing that he inherited from Zorn was the love of the landscape. He also appropriated the Zorn style of reducing multiple landscapes to similar lines and a fairly uniform style. This is not necessarily a criticism, but although Zorn wouldn't be often attacked for intricacy, this is something that is prevalent in Sandzén's work.

Sandzén's work lies before us with singular straightness and directness, but there is a subtlety in the way he leads your interest into the composition at one obvious point and then sets your eye climbing across countryside. As our eyes climb through the landscape, Sandzén often breaks up landscapes with a building or something on the distant horizon. There is intimacy in his landscapes and most importantly there is no hint of blackness in the pure black and white and diffused shhadows of Sandzén. The shadows invariably make a handsome and dignified pattern in his works, and where Zorn uses soft colours of dusk and dawn in the sharp Californian light, Sandzén relies on design and shadow.

The artist knows his landscapes, and unlike Zorn's dispassionate interest outside of the lines and motion, Sandzén does more than pick out the salient features of a landscape and make it alive. One more thing that is interesting is that Sandzén never has a landscape that is totally untamed by the inhabitation of man, although there are houses, there are no people. Sandzén's linocuts speak an idiom not very closely related to that of other artists in the USA at the time. There is an abruptness and harshness in his works that are more an expression of admiration of his adopted homeland. Sandzén is often connected to the prairie printmakers, but to me groupings and connections to other artists are usually tenuous and not that interesting.

The most important thing about this artist was his observations of the landscape that were clearly swift and most likely very accurate. There is a mood that his linocut blocks and lithographic plates owe little to printmaking of the time and more to a kind of Germanic expressionism. There is no delicate variation of mellow tones to enhance the effectiveness of the line, instead we have strong raucous lines that offer vitality and more reminiscent of Germany than Britain or America. In the end, Sandzén demanded respect as a printmaker because of his teaching, and also as a talented artist and craftsman who captured a landscape not yet tamed by suburban strip malls and uniform housing in cul-de-sacs.

Arthur Wesley Dow (U.S.A. 1857-1922)

2011-02-05T09:55:00.008+08:00

Arthur Wesley Dow is often considered the father of the American woodblock. He was famed as an educator and I think ultimately there is more myth about the man than facts. Excellent as most of his work is, I don't always have a favourable opinion of them. In some ways I think that his works demonstrate very well what can be created with woodblocks, and his works have a characteristic style. At his best, Dow's works are examples of emotional colour of the rarest quality. A sail, dark against a dark-blue sky invaded by greenish hues, or a sunset with vivid violets and oranges. Nothing could be simpler really, but into a dull blue of the sky comes something of the yellow of the sun or a cloud. Dow's strength ultimately was in the perfection of his related tones, and he spent several years of slow and cautious consideration and working on his own revisions. Constable once wrote that a landscape could express a vision "full of religion and moral feeling" and it sometimes seems that Dow had the same philosophy, although sometimes his interpretation was full of piety.

Dow was more likely than many other artists to use the same blocks with variations in colour and then vary watery depth to his image. He also seemed intent to capture the stillness of a scene and he still had something of an Edwardian sense of the mystery of nature. The colours of Dow's works show a distinct literary appeal, and this fits in with both the myth and the man. Dow created works of such atmospheric quality, and such breadth and depth of colour that it seems like some of his works are watercolours. The only downside of Dow's works is that they are so dedicated to a pleasantness and tranquility that they sometimes fall a little flat. The paintings and prints of Dow are progressive and interesting, and show the character of a monumental character in American art, both as a teacher and an artist.

The landscape paintings of Dow are sometimes a little murky and this murkiness suggests that the artist, like many a forerunner, was oppressed unduly by the weight and largeness of his subject matter. When Dow turns his hand to fauna, we have life free from poses or gesture, and a sophisticated grace clearly influenced by Asian art and line. In every way, Dow will always be considered one of the forefathers of the American print, and one of the most important people in 20th Century American art. Dow's quiet sophisticated work always hold an intentional stress on the smoother rhythms of life, and perhaps this is why his name continues to linger on in the 21st Century.

John Buckland-Wright (1897-1954)

2011-01-27T13:18:00.007+08:00

John Buckland-Wright was born in New Zealand, however after the death of his parents he moved to England where he lived out the majority of his life. He read at Oxford and studied architecture at London University. He became interested in engraving and spent a number of years working under the venerated Stanley Hayter. This world allowed him to explore his own art and work in the field of engraving. For the most part Buckland-Wright is famous mostly for the nudes and variations on this theme that he created, but they are not his most stunning works, nor do they showcase his astonishing vision and skill.

Buckland-Wright exerts, even now, a colossal figure in early twentieth century printmaking in both Europe and Britain, and much of his work marks the evolution of 20th Century printmaking in Britain. Seen just for themselves, the rich and complex engravings of Buckland-Wright, give any viewer a sense of the power of vision that Buckland-Wright himself had. They are like the ink pictures of ancient Chinese artists who rejected colours and yet made statements of line, so powerful that the imagination of the observer was still stimulated and activated.

I have written in the past about the complexity of creating visual masterpieces in black and white. Added to this, the added skill required to do the kind of wood and copper engravings that Buckland-Wright himself created, we get the feeling that there are no limitations in creating beautiful work. This is not true. The skill of the artist is to create these works and yet not find himself or herself confined by, or defined by the technique or the monochromatic aspect of the works. Buckland-Wright seems to set himself free and escapes from the confines of the British eye in creating his works, and it is also perhaps one of the reasons he remains so relevant and resonant today.

What we get from Buckland-Wright, whose vision is wholly an artistic idea, and whose works seem both delicate and fierce, is a reaction to his fervor. He never fails to convey, even when his works are startlingly elaborate. The nudes may be restful, but they do not say all that Buckland-Wright had to say.The finest of Buckland-Wright's works are given to us without reservation, and they justifiably give us insight into a man who was extraordinarily talented.

The simplicity and tenderness of the feeling as well as the fine delicacy of his workmanship, make his works stand the test of time in ways that many others have not. Every one of his lines are bold, clear and lend significance to the vision that he has. They are accentuated by the fact that he was also a skilled artist. His nude studies are interesting because they seem more engaging and hold spontaneity. It is obvious this is an artist who was working out his ideas in careful detail. Because Buckland-Wright didn't often use colour, doesn't mean we lose anything. There is shadow, and tone, and many of his works swim in light. When there is a principal personage in his works, the importance is made clear with a complete expression of the body or the shape of the person. These are works of complete expression, by an artist who knows exactly what he means.

I think perhaps that Buckland-Wright's works can be counted upon to carry through a difficult technical process with manual dexterity and precision that sprang from an innate ability to make the hand, eye and imagination work together perfectly. His works are brilliant little monuments to technical capacity and examples of skill and craftsmanship. Buckland-Wright works are still available and able to be purchased, in fact they can be purchased at Annex Galleries. Don't expect any bargains however.

To Have and to Hang

2011-01-18T12:04:00.007+08:00

It has been some time since I did a "To Have and to Hang" posting, mostly because there has been a dearth of anything worth recommending. I am loathe to recommend anything that I wouldn't myself buy, and I don't think art needs to be financially crippling to purchase. I have been kind of astonished at some of the hopeful (deluded) buy it now prices for some items, and the starting prices for some pieces are kind of astonishing. I am always much more impressed by the sellers who put things on and have a range of high and low, it assures sales, and it also means they have a grasp of the market. Whilst I am ranting, I would like to say that a rather dullish Novak woodblock for 250 USD cannot compete with the prices of the items I have listed here. So, armed with nothing more than a working Paypal account and my champagne tastes on a beer budget, let's begin.....

A nice Hans Frank woodcut, to put you in touch with your inner volk. He was one of the many Austrian masters of the print, and this one is in lovely condition and although I despair the crazy prices the Frank brothers fetch, this one is within the realm of reasonable....for now.
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From the same seller, a pair of rather evocative modern American linocuts by John Draves. Draves is a Chicago artist, and I couldn't find much about him but no doubt some of the clever readers will let me know. I do know that he is talented and I can see that from looking at his linocuts which are both clever and complicated. For my money, the second one here is the most appealing, and looks positively 1920s.

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I am not sure of what to make of this, as the sellers (reputable dealers) have listed this item as "after" but I did a little of my own research and I think it is after, and more than likely, it is indeed a Raoul Dufy design for Bianchini Ferier, and even if it isn't, it is beautiful. It is a little ratty around the edges (aren't we all)yet there is something wonderfully modern about this. It is a scarf design, and although I am not sure it works so well as that, it is still very appealing as a piece of art.
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Next a very nice Eva Rubinstein photograph from 1972, fully signed and editioned. This one is interesting because of the line and play of light and dark. It is also cheap, considering that Rubinstein is considered one of the masters of modern photography. I especially love her interior landscapes and her ability to capture the neutral and positive shades of light. Get it while you can.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260721393072&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Another Hans Frank woodcut, this time cribbed from the Japanese, who cribbed it from the Chinese. I recall this print caused a sensation in New York in the 1900's when it was exhibited, that it received special mention in the New York Times. It was later used as inspiration by British artists, including Seaby and Giles. My preference is for the British artists on the topic, but this one was influential.

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Now an interesting Arthur Ridgen Read woodcut, titled "May Morning". There is something pleasant about it but perhaps I find it a bit too feminine and fussy. I can never make up my mind whether I love it or not. Read was part of the Winchelsea artist colony during the late Victorian period and early Edwardian period, and in some ways his works suffer from a certain fussiness. Anyway it is pretty good condition and although his best works are those that include people, there is something soothing about this piece. Anyway, how you can whinge, the price is in the normal range!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140502019140&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Update: Well it seems some clever buyer has thrown a handful of money at the seller, and this woodcut has gone. It sometimes happens, and it is always irksome.

Finally, an underpriced piece from a usually overpriced artist, Tom Lindenmuth.
Although I think he is an interesting artist, Americans pay much more for his work than I think they are worth. However, if you saw this at a flea market for less than 80 USD (which it was at the time of writing this entry) then I for one, wouldn't hesitate to snap it up.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190490162446&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

2011-01-17T19:46:00.003+08:00

Table Art is interesting, and a fuller more visually satisfying set of examples is over here at:

http://itstartedwithajug.blogspot.com/

Art and Commerce

2011-01-15T13:19:00.008+08:00

In the past I have written about the relationship between artists and commercial interests, but I had focused mostly on British art and British ceramics. It would have been remiss of me to have failed to mention the connection of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) and French ceramics. Cocteau, who did a dizzying number of ceramic works in the post-war period, is not usually connected to ceramics or ceramic design. He was not simply one of the avant garde artists of the post war period, he was also one ot the twentieth century's talented artists and was comfortable working in a wide variety of media and styles. He was a complicated artist who was determined to be accepted and yet remain on the forefront of contemporary art and the arts.

Ceramic works by Cocteau are often connected to Rosenthal, but that was not always the case. Many pieces were produced as art pieces by small atelier workshops, such as Atelier Madeleine-Jolly. Those rarer atelier produced pieces tend to be more extravagant, and decorative, whereas the pieces for Rosenthal are often transfer style pieces which replicated some of the more popular images of Cocteau. Cocteau was not the only one who was doing this of course, and Picasso created over a thousand designs for the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris, and Dali also created a number of art edition on ceramics. These are far less exciting pieces in some ways, than some of the comparable British pieces from the pre-war period, but they are interesting and important.

Of course the history of ceramic art goes back to ancient history, but the thing that strikes me as most fascinating of the Cocteau works is that they don't all have the requisite fineness and opacity of the finer works that were created by Rosenthal, and he was happy to work on earthware and teracotta.

Cocteau assisted in some ways to helping to rebuild the reputation of French ateliers and larger makers of ceramic and earthenware. In France, the art of the ceramic design was often a romantic proposition, whereas the Brtitish works were the perfect melding of utility and design. Despite his own humble birth and lack of advantages, Cocteau made up for what he lacked in technical knowledge by assiduous endeavour and persistent experiements. The results of this attainment can be seen in the final works.

Request for Help

2011-01-07T07:03:00.002+08:00

Anthony has written to me with some questions, and I know that dealers read the blog, and those in the know....so here is Anthony's request:

"I was wondering whether I might take advantage of your comment box to put a couple of questions out there that your readers may be able to help with?

The first is whether anyone knows what the situation with Stone and Press down in New Orleans is? Their website was not updated for a long time, then went down for a very long time and now simply seems to not exist any more. I was wondering whether they had stopped trading, though I can't find any notice of it on the web and I think they were listed as showing at the latest IFPDA event. Anyone got any info on that?

The second thing is that I am interested in the lithographs of Boris Lovet-Lorski, but I am slightly confused as to how his lithographic editions break down and there seems to be limited information on the net. I'm aware that he issued a portfolio of lithographs (I believe on cream paper) in an edition of 250. However, there appear to be at least two or three types of his lithographic works floating around - cream paper, signed bottom right and no other markings, some works that are marked bottom left as well (eg. "f-d") and some works that are printed on light blue or grey-green paper. The "same" work by him can vary considerably in price from gallery to gallery, but I'm worried there are differences in state I'm not aware of. All help gratefully received..."

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-06T17:46:00.008+08:00

Since it seems to be the season for hyperbole regarding snow and all things wintery, I thought a nostalgic look back at posters, encouraging the well-heeled to seek out the snow might be in order.

Firstly Otto Ernst (1884-1967) in a very typical composition, this time contrasting fields and open space with majesterial glory of the Swiss Alps.

Next Roger Broders (1883-1953) with an interesting visual lithographic poster from around 1930. The one below is also by Broders, and visually is wonderfully 30's in composition and execution.

Pierre Commarmond (1897-1983) had much the same visual language in his works, and his works were influential in French lithographic poster making especially in the 50's.

Rene Michaud, uses something wonderful in his 1933 poster, which captures all the essential modernity of the deco period.

More Walter J Phillips

2010-12-28T12:10:00.002+08:00

Walter Phillips (1884-1963) was one of the finer students of Urushibara in London, but prior to those classes, for the most part he was self-taught. He was introduced to Urushibara through his correspondence with William Giles, who was, even at that time considered one of the finest British printmakers. It was through the encouragement of Giles that Phillips made the trip to London, where the three became firm friends. In some ways, Phillips outdid both Giles and Urushibara through his sense of colour and perspective.

Phillips was a master because his extraordinary perspective was technically more interesting that those works created by both his tutor and mentor both. Phillips created luminous tones that would be hard to parrallel by most artists in any technique, and his visual attitude is stunning. Phillips created works that managed in every way to show his complete knowledge of the technique and his innate sense of colour, without ever compromising any aspect of design. Phillips was able to create paths of light and the sharpest accent of shade and shadow, which in turn was emphasized by his soft angles and form and his amazing colours. In many ways I prefer the works of Giles, because he favoured opalescent colours and elaborate line without over emphasis. However, dramatic silhouettes created by both Giles and Phillips were clearly taught to them by Urushibara, who often favoured this style of composition.

With Phillips we get drowsy afternoons of of summer, and bands of colour like ribbons to signify time of day. Most importantly, with Phillips we are reminded of the simple things and how beautifully small things can be created when details are combined with precision. I have come to appreciate the finesse of the tiniest woodblocks as done by many of the British and Commonwealth artists of the inter-war period, and of course one of the masters, Walter J Phillips.

Dr. Emma Bormann (Austria/USA June 29, 1887 - December 28, 1974)

2010-12-27T10:00:00.002+08:00

I have decided to republish some amazing information about Dr.Emma Bormann. Recently her grandson shared an astonishing amount of information about his grandmother, and about her incredible life. It seemed counter-intuitive to simply leave this wealth of knowledge in the comments section because the sheer detail is worth a great deal. I haven't changed his words, because there is no need. I am once again indebted to Andreas, and to all the amazing people who have written to share the details about family members on this blog.

Thanks to Andreas, all of this is part of an enormous body of information that people can use now and in the future. Emma Bormann was born in 1887 in Döbling, near Vienna, Austria. Her father was a distinguished professor of ancient Roman history and epigraphy at the University of Vienna, a pupil and collaborator of Theodor Mommsen. Emma Bormann was among the first group of women admitted to the University of Vienna, where she was awarded a doctorate in 1917 in prehistoric archaeology and anthropology. Other interests included drama and physical education.

In 1913, while still a student, Bormann began to study lithography and etching. She was inspired by the artists Oskar Laske and Ludwig Michalek, and studied with Michalek. She spent 1917-1920 in Munich, studying and also teaching graphic arts. Although her oeuvre includes linocuts, etchings, oil paintings, watercolors, silkscreens, silhouettes (paper cut-outs), mosaics, and collages, the woodcut was her favorite medium. She considered herself a “subtractive” artist, creating images by taking away rather than building up. She was also interested in children’s art education and the ideas of Franz Čižek.

Beginning in 1920 and through the 1930s she traveled extensively in Europe, visiting Germany, the Netherlands, England, Dalmatia, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Istanbul, and Prague. When she came to a new city, she liked to climb a tower or find another high spot from which to sketch. Many of her works take this bird’s-eye view of city streets and squares, bustling with human activity. Her works from these decades include two illustrated books with humorous verses and songs about skiing, and a woodcut series of Beethoven's houses in Vienna.

In 1925 she married Eugen Milch, a doctor and a gifted painter in his own right. They had two daughters. Bormann made her first trip to the United States in 1936. In that year she exhibited at the second international woodcut exhibition in Warsaw and received an award.

In 1939 she joined her husband, who had taken a medical post with the Church Missionary Society in Pakhoi (Peihai), southern China. From 1941-1950 she lived in Shanghai, but traveled to Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and Beijing to sketch and gather material.

In 1951 Emma Bormann traveled back to Europe via Japan, Hawaii, and the United States. In 1953 a major exhibition of her work was held at the Austrian State Printing Office. She returned to Japan in 1953 and lived there until 1958. In Japan she studied silkscreen (serigraphy) techniques and adapted them to her own work, for example in a series illustrating imperial Japanese court dancers and musicians.

From 1958 until her death, she traveled back and forth frequently between Japan and California, where her two daughters had settled. She continued to visit Europe and traveled to Mexico (1960), Thailand and Cambodia (1961), and many cities in Japan. She died in 1974 in Riverside, California.

Emma Bormann’s works show the influence of impressionism, expressionism, and the Arts and Crafts movement. The many cityscapes and crowds in her works express her love of travel and observing the human scene.

Emma Bormann exhibited frequently and her works are in many museum and private collections. Some recent exhibits:

September 21, 2001-January 7, 2002 – Bonn, Beethoven-Haus, “Von der Bonngasse ins Schwarzspanierhaus. Bonner und Wiener Beethovenhäuser in alten Ansichten.” [“From the Bonngasse to the Schwarzspanierhaus. Beethoven Houses in Bonn and Vienna in Old Pictures.”]

March 2003 – Tokyo, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG)

October 28-November 6, 2005 – Beijing, Beijing Urban Planning Museum, “Historische Ansichten Chinas von Emma Bormann”

January 23-February 3, 2006 – Vienna, Postsparkasse, “Emma Bormann”

January 12-January 18, 2009 – Tokyo, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG), “Emma Bormann (1887-1974)”

January 24-May 24, 2009 – Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum, “Wood. An exhibition celebrating the history and unique characteristics of the woodblock print.”

Works by Bormann are held in the following galleries and museums:

Albertina, Vienna
Wien Museum (formerly Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien), Vienna
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Vienna
British Museum, London
Muzej Grada Splita (City Museum, Split)
Galerija Umjetnina Split (Art Gallery, Split)
Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź

Yokohama Museum of Art
Riccar Art Museum, Tokyo

Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Fogg Art Museum and Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Lauinger Library, Georgetown University
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Chicago Art Institute
Cleveland Museum of Art
Pomona College Museum of Art, Montgomery Art Center, Pomona, California
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Not to be Outdone

2010-12-25T22:36:00.006+08:00

Walter J Phillips was a British/Canadian artist, and was also a student of Urushibara. Phillips, and William Giles both studied closely and corresponded with Urushibara both before they studied with him and after. Giles and Phillips are both considered (rightly so) as masters of the colour print, during the interwar years, and became firm friends through their lives. The floral works of Phillips are less common, and not as vivid or jubilant as his landscapes, but he was no slouch on the topic. He brought a very Japanese aesthetic to his floral studies, and clearly the tutelage of Urushibara was not limited to paper sizing or carving, but also in how to create effects and use perspective. At times they have the appearance of staid decorations for the middle class home; at other times kimono patterns and also Impressionist watercolours. I have added three here for your Christmas enjoyment.

I will be doing another posting with some lesser known and lesser seen woodblocks by Phillips in the coming weeks, so do stay tuned.

Floriate

2010-12-24T11:59:00.008+08:00

Mabel Royds was ironically, at her most modern when she created these woodblocks. Ironically, because the topic of floral studies was a common one, and not always done with the same level of style or gusto that Royds manifested. Although the Germans and Austrians were the undeniable stars of this topic, no British artists came close to Royds, and her influence by the Japanese printmakers and the Edinburgh School or Art faculty is undeniable.

Ethel Kirkpatrick

2010-12-23T16:37:00.003+08:00

For those of you have not seen it, Charles has written the most detailed biography of one of the more under-rated British artists of the 20's. His blog is also a wonderful resource in the world of art and printmaking. Well worth a long and leisurely visit.
http://haji-b.blogspot.com/2010/12/definitive-ethel-kirkpatrick.html

The Genius of Urushibara

2010-12-23T10:31:00.013+08:00

The Japanese artist Yoshijiro Urushibara had a profound influence on European colour printmakers. During this time, he took the artist's name Mokuchu which was used in some of his seals. At the age of 19, Urushibara travelled to London to demonstrate Japanese printmaking at the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition. Urushibara stayed in England and France until 1934, teaching woodblock printmaking to many prominent artists and producing his own prints. I won't bang on too much about the biography of Urushibara, because I posted on him ealier, but I didn't manage to make the comparisons or show the prints that showcase his genius, hence this posting.

He was an integral part of the European colour print movement, and taught printmaking to such artists as Walter J. Phillips, John Platt, William Giles, Ada Shrimpton and Allen Seaby. His techniques are mentioned in Phillips' book on printmaking. In addition, Urushibara converted the drawings and watercolors of other artists into woodblock prints. His most famous collaboration was with the English artist Frank Brangwyn.

Brangwyn was never a huge egotist and once said of Urushibara's carving, "He did a good deal of work with me - made coloured woodcuts after my watercolours - so good were some of 'em that it was difficult to tell the difference between the originals." Speaking of originals, I have added a pair of works by other artists, one of whom was a student of Urushibara's. I have added the image of the Stonehenge by William Giles to compare with that created by Urushibara. The influence is undeniable. Above the image of Durham Cathedral by Urushibara, I have added York by Emile Antoine Verpilleux.

Holiday Wishes

2010-12-22T10:18:00.004+08:00

This year has been sometimes tiring and I have considered ending the blog, but every so often people will send an email, share a thought or picture and sometimes, they write to tell me that one of the artists I have written about was their family member. It has been gratifying and rewarding and each time I have thoughts of ending the blog, one of those comments or emails arrives to change my mind. I also appreciate the patience of the regular readers of this blog who still come back or wait for my next posting.

With that said, I want to wish everyone happy holidays and 新年あけましておめでとうございますand 新年快樂

Graphically Stated

2010-12-21T12:45:00.007+08:00

It has been some time since I did a posting on posters...and this one is a little different as it is a posting on posters about art.

Touch of Frost

2010-12-21T11:21:00.010+08:00

Terry Frost (1915-2003) was one of Britain's most influential abstract painter and printmaker. Royal. During World War II he was captured at Crete in 1941, he became a prisoner of war in Bavaria where he met Adrian Heath who encouraged him to become an artist. Upon his return he studied at the Camberwell School of Art under William Coldstream and Victor Pasmore, and in 1950 moved to the artist colony of St Ives. From 1955 he taught at Leeds, Coventry, California, Newcastle and Reading, before returning to Cornwall. Most importantly, Frost was influential throughout his years as both a teacher and technical master. He was also important through his dissemination of sound vital principles of art education and his modernist viewpoint of art.

Much of what Frost did, is now accepted throughout the world, but at the time that Frost was working in Britain, his very organic and visual art wasn't always accepted, but he was a part of a group of British artists that helped to awaken a different perspective on art in a slightly fussy local art market. Frost's paintings are wonderful, but I find his printwork to be particularly vivid and beautifully crafted. His expressive works were an important step in British art that was leaving behind a very identifiable fifties art. I think Frost is one of the true masters of British modernism.

A Rare Verpilleux

2010-12-14T21:18:00.002+08:00

"Lowes Bridge" woodcut printed in colours, 1917 is a rare print by Emile Antoine Verpilleux (1888-1964). Rare not simply because it is uncommon, but rare because it's complexity and sensitivity are easy to see and show a different side to an artist I have been somewhat unkind to in the past. It is easy to see why he was considered one of the premier British printmakers of his day. I don't always like his works, and I stand by that, however, this is something complex and exquisitely rendered.

Barry Flanagan (Britain 1941 - 2009)

2010-12-14T20:36:00.005+08:00

Barry Flanagan passed away only recently, and although a full and complete appraisal of his work and contribution to British sculpture is not yet down, perhaps it is unlikely that his print work will be considered any time soon. For the most part Flanagan is remembered as a sculptor, and what a sculptor he was. As the Guardian newspaper wrote in their touching obituary, "The wide appeal of his bronze animals (also cougars, elephants and horses) seemed at odds with the more oblique nature of his early works, which were made in humble materials, such as sand, sticks and hessian. His art was associated with the minimal and land art movements of the 1960s, frequently addressing process and language (a rope piece installed in two spaces, for example, was titled 2sp rope 2'67/9). With hindsight, the consistently authentic, original nature of the work is rooted in Flanagan's way of lightly touching the materials and his rather British (or Celtic) understatement and playfulness."

It doesn't mention any of his printmaking but then sometimes, artists are remembered for one thing over another, and that is the case with Flanagan. The last sentence could be used to describe his printwork just as easily as his sculptural and three-dimensional work. I add some examples of his printwork here, and all of these are once again examples of the linocut. His printwork is wonderfully free, and to have created such freedom from industrial linoleum is wonderful.

Rupert Shephard (Britain/South Africa 1909-1992 )

2010-12-14T20:20:00.005+08:00

Rupert Shephard, is often thought of these days as a painter and he was a widely respected artist, even during his lifetime. He studied at the Slade School of Art from 1926 until 1929 and after leaving Slade, Shephard became a schoolmaster using his evenings to paint. He had exhibited his paintings since 1929 at various London venues, and his work was collected during that period. In 1937, the inaugural year of the Euston Road School of Drawing and Painting, he exhibited with the school's founder members William Coldstream, Claude Rogers, and Victor Pasmore at the Storran Gallery. During the Second World War he worked as an official war artist. He subsequently moved to South Africa with his family to become the director of the Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town. He returned to England in 1962 and painted full-time from then on. Although he wasn't widely recognised for his printwork, I have included some linocuts created by Shephard. These works date from the fifties, and have the trademark British cross-hatching that was prevalent amongst many linocut artists of the period. Mostly I think they are each, in their own way, a symphony of line, colour and motion.

An Additional Margaret Barnard

2010-11-30T06:55:00.003+08:00

Gerrie over at http://gerrie-thefriendlyghost.blogspot.com/ has shared his stunning Margaret Barnard linocut.

Walter Hoyle (Britain 1922-2000)

2010-11-29T16:03:00.006+08:00

Walter Hoyle was a respected artist and was mentored by Edward Bawden. This relationship can be seen in a great deal of the work Hoyle created, where the influence of Bawden and Bawden's circle are ever present. He was primarily known as a painter and a printmaker, but he was unusual in one way. His linocuts are exercises in precision and detail, in much the same way as Bawden's works, but very different from so many other artists who worked in the medium. I offer two here for comparison, and I think they show an interesting modern approach to the linocut.

Margaret Barnard (Britain 1900 - 1992)

2010-11-29T15:49:00.004+08:00

Margaret Barnard is one of the lesser known apostles of Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School. Her works are rarer and quieter, but no less dramatic or powerful than other, better known students. She was in fact Scottish and was a Glasgow School of Art student before moving to London. She was married to the artist, Robert Mackechnie and they traveled and lived in Italy before settling in Rye. Her works are more complicated than many of the better known alumni and she was also famed for her paintings done in Italy, and of the Scottish coastline.

Nigel Lambourne (Britain 1919 - 1988)

2010-11-28T15:10:00.000+08:00

Nigel Lambourne was a fascinating printmaker, whose career traversed many of the major periods of British art and printmaking developments. He was a student at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1934 until 1937 after which he studied at the fabled Central School of Arts and Crafts and then finally ar the Royal College in the 30's. He exhibited widely after World War I and was one of the artist who worked on the Festival of Britain in 1950 and 1951.

In some ways Lambourne's works are a kind of visual laboratory of printmaking in the 20th Century, and although some might appear a little crude, they are not. When grouped together, as I have tried to do here,there is a wonderful visual development with inky blacks and swirling lines carved into industrial linoleum.

His process of printmaking, especially in his linocuts, are exercises in handwork, line and a kind of visual perfection that comes from breaking everything down into the barest bones. His works are so cleverly done, and expertly visualized, that you have to look at them attentively before realizing they are not hand drawn or painted on. This is the genius of Britishness, and that is that it is not the process, but always the skill in handling the process.

Lambourne is not to the taste of all, but for a man who spurned colour and pomposity for the simplest line and the clearest image in monochromatic, his originality and aptitude cannot be denied. Perhaps one criticism to his work, might be suggested, he had a limited range of compositions in which he appeard to be engaged.

Julia and All the Pretty Horses

2010-11-26T09:11:00.009+08:00

For once, less words, and more pictures. I love Julia Mavrogordato and have written about her in the past. Here is some visual candy by one of the lesser known gods of the linocut.

For anyone in the market for a little Julia Mary Mavrogordato, then I have to say, one of the most stunning I have ever seen is available. It is exquisite cubism and a symphony of line.

http://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/detail/15355/Julia-Mavrogordato/Race-Horses

Shin Hanga and Europe

2010-11-25T10:47:00.017+08:00

In these days, there is still much prominence that is given to Japan, and to things Japanese. The influence of Japan is undeniable today with manga, movies and modern design, but there was also a period that I have written about previously that seems to be of interest to many readers of my blog. I am no expert, but to artists, and connoisseurs, Japanese art has been extremely absorbing as both a topic and and an area of study as well as collecting.

Today I will look at the Shin Hanga movement which literally means the "New Prints", but was more related to a movement of pictorial renewal that developed during the Taisho period (1908 - 1925) and the early part of the Showa period, up until the 1950's. One of the indisputable masters was Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) who was the very quintessential Japanese printmaker. He was both an artist, engraver, printer and publisher, and this was, at that time not particularly common. In fact, Hasui studied under one of the master carvers, Shosaburo Watanabe in Tokyo who carved the art of both Japanese and foreign artist (notably Pieter Irwin Brown). After studying under Watanabe, Hasui began to work on his own and specifically capturing the works that were of interest to him philosophically and artistically. In his day, he was considered a master of the snow, and this mostly came about because one of his earliest prints captured a temple in a snow storm, with the drama of white and red appealing both to Japanese as well as the international collector. This print was reprinted more than 3000 times, and it cemented Hasui as one of the true masters of Japanese printmaking. Keep in mind, Japan had, at that time, created no great painters, sculptors, musicians or poets as our Western ideas understand these terms. This kind of celebration was rare, and yet as a whole and as a nation, Japanese people have an inherent artistic taste and a love of the beautiful and the picturesque as well as a genuine undefined feeling for the harmonious.

It would be very hard to overestimate the debt which the world owes the Japanese wood-engraver, but during the period Hasui was working (and Hiroshi Yoshida) there was a far greater tooing and froing flow of art. Whilst Hasui influenced European artists, there was an influence that Europeans had on them. This was especially true on French art and the French impressionists and their dedication to colour. However this is not the beginning or the end of the relationships.

It is often paradoxically said that art is usually more affected by a new technical process than by a new idea. This suggestion works in some cases but the art of printmaking in Europe had a number of influences. In Europe at the turn of the 19th Century, many artists were abandoning new and cheaper ways of reproducing art and lines, and falling back upon older methods. It is probably purely coincidental that the Germans and French were rejecting many of the new modern methods and returning to wood-engraving, etching and lithography. It began at the turn of the century, and at that time many European artists mourned the art of wood printing and engraving as being dead.

However the influence of Japan and the rejection of more mechanised forms of art in Europe led to a new lease of life of the techniques. The vogue of the Japanese woodcut prints in colour can absolutely be said to have started this movement and renaissance. In England and in the United States, a good many attempts had been made in the Japanese way, that is to say, by broad, flat colour blocks, to be pained rather than inked for each impression, and a finely cut outline block to be printed in black. We know this because of the works of Batten and Fletcher in Britain, and Dow in the USA.

In France and Germany, however, the line work to which to we Anglo-Saxons have not always been accustomed, prevailed. Especially in German prints, the blue of the sky and the flesh tints were kept in broad masses, modeled only toward the edges by a bold white line, which the Germans and French both called "en camaieu". But in the stunning prints of the Germans and French (like Riviere) the line work was as fine as in any modern woodcut. In these works the effect is very different from the flat tones and simple gradations of the Japanese print. Many of the French and German prints were interesting because of their vaporous horizons and gave a good idea of a painter's handling with an added interest from the skill which came from the engraver's tool. These European prints were certainly more subtle than the British works of the time, and the British failed to catch up until the 20's.

Pierre Eugene Vibert (1903, Woodcut)

In France however, etching was always more in vogue than the woodcut. This explains one reason woodcuts by French artists are not as plentiful as those by German, Austrian and British artists. The French also had an interest in capturing scenes drawn from every-day life, the sailing of a fishing fleet, harvesters at work and interiors with figures, and often did so without the use of colour. This was almost certainly a native thing, and not something copied or influenced by the Japanese, but coincidentally, the Shina Hanga movement captured many of the same topics. The French etchings were very different also to the Anglo-Saxon taste, which were often done in flat tints. The French creations were instead done in harmoniously blended tones, and often monochromatic.

Pierre Eugene Vibert (1907)

To my taste, I would say they are not always for me, but some of the less elaborate coloured French prints are interesting. The French also did something that I think was different to other artists in other countries. They often rubbed the colours into the lines of the etched plate. This could have come from the earlier poster craze but some artists seem to also do it with wood carving and the overall effect was that many works had a seemingly impressionistic effect. Once again, however, we struggle with making too many comparisons because the Japanese influence was generally in etching, rather than wood-engraving.

Henri Amedee-Wetter (1920)

Hasui's works certainly also had some influence in Germany, particularly outside of Munich where the works tended to be darker and heavier and far less allegorical. The works of Hasui were content with using colour and pictorial to show different light and movement. This approach appealed to the French, but it wasn't always popular in the headquarters of the Art Nouveau movement. The Germans always had a strong connection to printmaking and woodblocks but the Germans also had a stronger sense of colour than the French and the Japanese. The Germans also had a tendency to use art as a means of expression for vague and abstruse philosophical ideas. Perhaps this is why also, the Japanese influence is more readily identifiable in the French print, as opposed to the German one. Many of the artists at the time posed as philosophers and poets and mystics. There was a little of this also in the British art scene but it passed far faster than it did in Germany. You may criticize the technique of many of the German artists, but if you were unable to glean the profundity of their meaning, then you were in all sorts of trouble. The Batten/Fletcher team sometimes found themselves in this mess, and I suspect it was more to do with Batten than Fletcher. Perhaps it is also why Fletcher made out on his own.

Charles Spindler (1915)

For the Germans, colours were to be used for the meanings attached to them. I have written about this before, and the theory is mostly dead, but there is a little of that in some of the works by some of the Japanese printmakers, but it was never at the level it was in the early part of the 20th Century in Germany. Keep in mind of course, that the Germans were a little cultish about a number of things, and I recall a story of all the Germans who killed themselves after reading Goethe's "Tales of Young Werther", so much so that it had to be banned in many places. This was the same with the colour equals meaning mystic madness. In the end, the Germans were the greatest at the line in the woodcut, but the French had something interesting in their artistic renderings of nature using the colour print. Ultimately a number of Japanese printmakers did go to France where they were welcomed and found success, but it was a fashionable embrace rather than a throwing open of the doors that Urushibara was offered by the British. It is also possible that more than a lot of printmakers struggled to make money or gain employment because of the mechanised processes of printmaking rendered many of them unnecessary.

Despite all of this, Shin Hanga had an amazing impact on France and Germany and some of the smaller art markets of Europe also, and although there are nationally identifiable aspects to all these movements, the influence of the Japanese print is undeniable and of huge importance to us today.

An Appreciation of the Japanese Print

2010-11-18T15:09:00.009+08:00

In order, even superficially, to enjoy the Japanese woodblock, it is necessary at times to constanly keep in mind that the ideals of the visuals were, in many ways different to the Western aesthetics. Part of this is philosophical, and much of it has to do with the difference between what is being captured and the reason for it being captured. Traditionally much Eastern art has not been on seeking to capture reality, but on realizing a moment of time. I have written in the past about Japanese printmaking, but in fact, the traditions themselves come from China, where there is the old saying, "A picture is a painted poem". This of course also explores the many instinctive preferences of the Chinese toward something that suggests rather than merely represents.

Suggestion is thought of as having more power than the imagination and as being more interesting than the full realization of the scene. Empty spaces are given their full value in design, not to render the external aspect, but the animated spirit. The Western artists enjoy the challenges and complications of material or composition, whereas many Chinese and Japanese artists worked hard to simplify scenes and used art as the fulfillment of traditional ideas. Western artists considered themselves somehow locked into a truthful reproduction of at least a part of the external features of the subject, but this was not a concern of traditional Chinese and Japanese art. The idea that art is the imitation of nature is not really a big issue or concern with traditional Eastern art. Chinese art is the fountainhead of the more recent art of Japan, but what the Japanese learned they took, improved and advanced until the connection to the original was historical only. The independent art of Japan has much more energy and vitality than their Chinese cousins, and they were much more interested in the gestures of people and the facial expressions. Perhaps the most famous school of Japanese art, and the one that sent the electric jolt outwards toward Europe, was the Ukiyo-E which I have written about in the past.

Renowned not only for the colour prints, the Ukiyo-E also produced individual artists of merit, whose selection of subjects was made from the daily life and scenes of an ever changing panorama. However, for the most part, this panorama was of ordinary people, doing ordinary things and as such, the fascination of this sophistication awakened a dramatic change in European art. These were rich sources of inspiration for artists who relied on tradition to capture the contemporary world and using dramatic colour and carving to do it, was a surprising change in both Japanese art, but one that hugely influenced the West. The Germans were the first to warm to it, and they had come to it by the Dutch, who had an important port of entrance. By the time it reached England, you were hard pressed to find many British artists whose enthusiasm had warmed to mild interest. British artists were falling over themselves to own, learn, study and master the techniques in the late 19th Century, however there were some criticisms.

Many British found that the Japanese art was lacking somewhat in the more exacting and scrupulous taste that had exerted itself over the Victorian printmakers of the time. Many eminent Victorians were still busying themselves with mythology and sea nymphs and the reaction to everyday nothingness being captured as both odd and a bit unsatisfying. However, once the Victorian values started to flag and Japan had adopted more Western ideas, the celebration of all things Japanese, increased. The values of Morris, Ruskin, Knox and the desire to throw out the conventional and embrace something more decorative and animated led to the next and final stage in Japanese printmaking domination.

It was at this time we get at the source of the inspiration, from which was to flow not only a massive change in British printmaking but also in German printmaking and in American printmaking too. Many of the artists I have featured on this blog, if they were alive today, would no doubt make mention of the genius of the Japanese printmaker. This is not to say that German, British and American art didn't adapt and excel, but if we reflect on how much was gained then the importance of the Japanese print, it is fairly extraordinary.

These changes that came about in Britain, Europe and the USA, were not imitation but were an absorption of ideas based on the study of the decorative characteristics and technical brilliance of the Japanese print. In order to truly appreciate the ideas of modern printmaking we also need to remind ourselves of some of the nobler qualities of Japanese art and the Asian aesthetic. I have often criticized British artists for getting caught up in the decorative and not always editing with a sharp eye, but those that really absorbed those Japanese aesthetic lessons, have something remarkable to show. We also need to remember that Japanese and Chinese art has a tradition that in some ways made it at differing times, moribund. The Japanese form however has been maintained, and to a far lesser extent, it has survived in Europe, Australia and the USA. For me the journey of enjoying all of this art is to take it away from just being an interest for the connoisseur, but instead, something for all of us. I will also endeavour to highlight more modern, and especially living, printmakers to show that the technique is alive and well and still has something to say.

A Correction

2010-11-17T13:46:00.011+08:00

Roger kindly sent me an email, and has offered a correction, and for the sake of facts, I think it is a nice one, and always good to have as reference for the future.

"I have just visited your site for the first time in ages (been busy with other things) and noticed the request for help on 21st May to identify the artist with the monogram 'B'. I'm sorry to tell you that, although the work is similar to Brian Cook, the artist is John Bee who did several railway posters during the 30's, 40's and 50's." Roger also kindly included some of the poster work that Bee created. His works clearly have the B monogram, and more than that, there is a wonderful and distinct visual aspect of his work that are certainly easy to identify. The skies have it.

Actually very little is known about John Bee, but he was born in 1895 and he was not only a graphic designer in the 30's, but was also a set designer (which wasn't uncommon of the time). One of the things that had drawn attention in the original posting was the horse and carriage, which is used here also, and to much the same effect. Bee was clearly a trained printmaker, and there is something familiar works which no doubt led to confusion initially. Roger also mentions that the Bee poster of the Yorkshire Coast, is the coastal town of Staithes. The first picture in the posting below, on Urushibara and Fletcher, is by John Edgar Platt. This is also of Staithes. Well spotted and well corrected. It just goes to show that the readers of this blog, are very clever, and Roger has outdone himself.

Urushibara and Frank Morley Fletcher

2010-11-12T13:53:00.019+08:00

There is often much confusion when the name Urushibara is mentioned. Part of the problem is that there were three brothers who influenced the process of printmaking in Britain, and then later in the USA. The most famous of the brothers was Mokuchu Urushibara (1889-1953). Mokuchu Urushibara orginally came to London in 1910 for the Japan-British Exhibition, and his works caused an instant sensation. Whilst in London he shared many of his skills and techniques with a great number of students, during the period London and New York were in a fit of Japonisme, when all things Japanese were popular.

(John Edgar Platt)

Whilst in London Mokuchu Urushibara was commissioned by a number of artists to both create art for them, or recreate other famous Japanese pieces. One such commission was from Sidney Colvin, but most famously it was Frank Brangwyn who embraced Urushibara and introduced him both to his circle and to many other artists who were interested in printmaking. From 1912 until 1939 (when he returned to Japan) he was a huge celebrity in the art world. It was the entree that he created that allowed his older brothers Sanjiro and Eijiro to also have a warm welcome from the London art circle. The works we most commonly see of Mokuchu Urushibara are rather static creations of flowers in vases, but of course the works for which he is most famous were highly sought after and rarely seen. In his lifetime, he was most famous for his landscapes and animal studies. His studies of the English, French and Italian countryside, were considered masterpieces and collected and traded amongst Brangwyn's circle. Of course Brangwyn himself worked with Urushibara creating a portfolio of six woodblocks which sometimes come on the market in a cannibalized form. Urushibara often translated art into woodblocks for specific artists too, and here I think of the prints he did for Sir George Clausen and of course Brangwyn himself.

(Frank Morley Fletcher)

It is also important to note that many works were created in a collaborative way, which was the common approach in Japanese printmaking, and it is this collaborative approach that Mokuchu Urushibara brought with him. Perhaps the most famous of course is the "Admonitions of the Instructress in the Palace" which was authored by Laurence Binyon and the original art was designed by Gu Kai Zhi, with the block cut by Hideaki Sugisaki and printed by Mokuchu Urushibara. All of this wonder was created in London and took place in 1912, and it was during this period that many British artists took their classes with Urushibara on the technical aspects of woodblock printing.

(Helen G Stevenson)

This is not to say that this collaborative style didn't already exist in Britain, because in a previous posting I mentioned the shared load that John Dickson Batten and Frank Morley Fletcher had done much earlier. However that is only part of the story, Dickson Batten himself is commonly credited with the introduction of the Japanese method to Britain, and in most case he designed the works and Morley Fletcher carved the blocks. The most famous of these of course was "The Harpies". For this particular print, Batten did indeed make the design and Fletcher cut the block. The original outline block was cut in 1896 and that was also the year of the first impression. However, it is generally accepted that the published version from 1920 anwas the finer, and this print appears in "The Original Colour Print Magazine" on the first of June, 1925. This collaborative technique probably had some native foundation anyway, as it was very much part of the Arts and Crafts idea, that everything had a sort of organic and collaborative development, and this lead to a finely tuned and aesthetically pleasing finished product. In the case of the Batten and Fletcher pieces, their initial works were a little overworked and were very Edwardian in their nature.

(Mabel Royds)

A curator at the V&A was able to provide me with information that Fletcher was indeed one of the students of Urushibara, and although he very much admired the approaches and the techniques, he was not as enamoured of the techniques and certainly not necessarily as eager to be a dogmatic follower. Some of the other artists who studied with Urushibara, apart from Brangwyn and Fletcher were of course Walter Joseph Phillips, William Seaby, William Giles and John Edgar Platt. These men are generally considered to be the godfathers of the modern British print. Fletcher mentions his admiration of the Japanese print making process an interview he gave with The Studio, but he was also wary of the dangers of being a dogmatic follower in the approach as Seaby, Giles and Phillips found themselves to be. Fletcher was well aware of the difficulties of trying to develop a genuine and authentic British printmaking if artists only took the Japanese approach without any evolution and consideration of the techniques that came before and would come after. After all the ideas were not new to Britain and art colleges had already been teaching the techniques before Urushibara arrived in Britain, most notably Slade. Fletcher went on to publish perhaps one of the most famous books on printmaking "Wood-Block Printing" in 1916, and it was largely through this book that many people received their education in the art and technique.

(William Giles)

To be sure, Fletcher had absorbed his lessons from Urushibara well, but he was no dogmatic follower in the style of Seaby. During the period that both of them were at Reading University, there was no doubt some tooing and froing on the matter. It has been written rather obtusely previously that Seaby met Fletcher at Reading University, but in fact although they did both meet there, they both also made the trips to London for classes and get-togethers. Fletcher was certainly a master of the technique at that time, but there were many more forgotten British artists of the Victorian period whose names are long forgotten who were also experts in the field. Seaby went on to print his own version and he maintained a fairly close adherence to the original Japanese styles. Seaby often stuck with the birds, but his landscapes are perhaps his finest works and the undeniable influence of Japan is in them. When Fletcher went to Edinburgh as the director, it is here that the development of a true blend of British aesthetics with Japanese skills, technique and colouring finally converged. From the Edinburgh College of Art come many of the finest British printmakers of the period, and the school seemed to create a much freer sort of art amongst the students. The most common names we hear are Mabel Royds, who was a teacher; John Edgar Platt who was a dean and a teacher, and was also the teacher of Helen G Stevenson. From the USA, came Norma Bassett Hall and of course later, Fletcher himself went to California and helped foster a printmaking community there. In my opinion however, none of these artists come close to the mastery of the Germans and Austrians but we shall leave that for another day.

(William Seaby)

There is no denying the influence and importance of Frank Morley Fletcher, but by comparison to both his students and many German and Austrians his works are static and not always vivid. There is a vast difference between his continental works and his Californian works, but the truth is the history of Fletcher has been written and his place in British and American printmaking is solidified. I always preferred the works of William Giles, and Giles later went on to develop his own technique, and the later works of John Edgar Platt are wonderful exercises in movement and colour. Technically, I also think there were far greater artists who didn't write books or attain the same name recognition as Fletcher....but in the end, the influence of the Urushibara brothers on Fletcher is undeniable. The influence of Fletcher on me however, is negligible.

(Emil Orlik)

Of Eijiro Urushibara we have less information but he was certainly present in London in the 20's and thirties although he was more commonly known as a block carver. Eijiro commonly created the art of other artists into woodblock prints. The one I have down below was from a block carved by Eijiro Urushibara, but the actual image was painted by Kojo Kokan (1891-1988). It is an interesting image, and seems just as fresh now as it was when initially printed in 1930.

A Hallmark

2010-11-08T18:19:00.002+08:00

I should admit that I started this blog because I had quit smoking and bought an apartment all within a fairly short space of time. I had realised that I needed to do things with my fingers and hands, and I couldn't just sit and do nothing in front of the television. That is when the smartest person I know suggested I write a blog about art, at first to catalogue the art I have. The blog has sort of changed since then, and has grown and transformed. I always put a lot of time into my research

The sign of this growth and change is that now there are 90 followers. So, allow me to say to those people who read my ramblings, or look forward to reading what I think about this artist or that aesthetic.....THANK YOU. It is flattering and gratifying, and it also makes me very careful about my research and my information. I also think that a lot of the things that happened here were due to my interest in Kenneth Broad, and by virtue of that the Broad grandchildren, who have so generously shared their insights and thoughts. Of course to all the other family members of artists whose names have appeared here and who have taken the time to write to me, thank you. I shall continue to work on this blog and plug away at artists and ideas that are bouncing about in my mind. To the 90 followers, my many thanks.

To Have and To Hang

2010-11-04T12:26:00.004+08:00

Well it is that time of the week again, hidden gems of Ebay. There is a plethora of gems, and Ebay has already begun their countdown to Christmas!! Apparently there is only 53 days left before Christmas, so you better...um....hurry.

Okay, the first from the same seller, some Daniel Staschus woodblocks. Most probably these were a set, as was the tradition of Staschus, and although I can barely imagine what German people did in the Art Nouveau period, I assume they all sat around a fire and oohed and aaahed at the ever changing cityscapes as captured by artists. Staschus sold sets of these of different cities, as did many others of the same period. The same seller has three, but this is the one that appeals to me the most.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370450724073&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Next up an appealing Urushibara. Although the British masters were fond of his works, I am not convinced of his aesthetics, although clearly he knew his stuff. In some ways I think the Germans eclipsed many of the Japanese artists, but this one is pleasant and nicely Art Deco.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140472626156&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Next an Austrian dealer with a lovely pair of Engelbert Lap woodblocks. This one is worth mentioning because the dealer also accepts Paypal and ships internationally. They are in lovely condition and they are a sensible price. It is hard not to share the joy that Lap quite obviously felt about his alpine Austrian home.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120641189687&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:ITT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120641237255&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

By comparison, the stubborn seller of this Needell woodcut still seems to be struggling with the concept "market value". It has now been sitting on Ebay for over a month, and the seller still refuses to start it off at a sensible price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180581783505&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

A lovely Mary Fairclough illustration from the Art Deco period, in nice condition and fully signed.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260680532738&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Another Mary Fairclough double sided painting from this seller, and although it isn't her usual style, it is certainly skillfully done and you get two for the price of one, and for the price it would be hard to beat. Take a look at the same seller's other items, he has a fantastic eye, and some wonderful pieces.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230545717007&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

For those who are interested in Fairclough, Charles has a wonderful posting on her, and you will quickly see that portraits were one of her strengths. I also think she is tremendously under-rated, but she won't be for long. Her name has been making a comeback and there is a revival of her reputation, although she has long been a favourite for collectors.
http://haji-b.blogspot.com/2010/10/mary-fairclough-in-studio.html

Another British artist whose fame has been forgotten is Greta Delleany, who specialised in etchings and drypoints. Her works were predominantly animal studies and farm life, and she is represented in the British Museum. Her works were widely exhibited in the 20's and she passed away in the mid-fifties. At the current price, it is one of the cheapest additions to a works on paper collection you could buy, 20 USD!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/GRETA-DELLEANY-A-R-E-ETCHING-THE-BARN-/290495504918?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item43a2e1a216

From the same seller, another etching, this time by the Scottish artist Joseph Gray (1890-1962). Gray is a fascinating artist, who had no formal training. He started off in art working for the Dundee Courier as an illustrator, and then turning to etchings after World War I. This print is actually titled " High Street, Edinburgh", and dates from 1927 and is in the British Museum collection too. It is currently a wee 32 USD!! They are almost giving it away.
http://cgi.ebay.com/JOSEPH-GRAY-ETCHING-OLD-EDINBURGH-SCOTTISH-INTEREST-/300488578964?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item45f683d794

Just to prove the validity of the seller of the Mary Fairclough double sided portrait, billspics, has a stunning Frederick MacKenzie watercolour painting of the choir stands at Winchester Cathedral.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330484899485&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

So bid early and bid often, and let me know what you think or if you buy any of the items.

Roald Kristian (Norway 1893 - 1918)

2010-11-01T17:05:00.008+08:00

It is not often that I write about a male artist who was overshadowed by his wife, but when writing about members of the Bloomsbury Set, all bets are off. Kristian is mostly remembered today as the husband of Nina Hamnett, but that is a bit of a shame. Hamnett and Kristian met in Paris. Hamnett was a rather eccentric personality whose reputation and name are probably greater than her actual art, although some of her works for the Omega Workshops are interesting, she has certainly outshone her husband.

Kristian had access to some of the finest aesthetes and artists of the period, including Walter Sickert, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Modigliani, Picasso and Fernand Leger. Sickert in fact memorialised the pair in his painting, "The Little Tea Party: Nina Hamnett and Roald Kristian" which is in the Tate Collection. Their marriage didn't last long, and nor did his reputation.

However for this posting, I will say less about Hamnett and instead mention Krisitan by way of Norwegian art. It is said that William Morris wanted to be taken back to Norway for a last look at the hills, in a moment of nostalgia, in his last days. It doesn't quite reach the depths of us in the same way it penetrates people of the region. The myths and legends and the love of the light is in the blood of Scandinavians. One thing that is ever present in the works of many Scandinavians, but particularly in the works of Norwegians, is a kind of mournful melancholy. Think of the most prominent Norwegian artist, and you will have an immediate image that resonates even in the 21st Century. However, Norway is a fascinating country, considering that two-thirds of the population live on the coast and up and down the fjords, and towns are small with few exceptions. There is also a lot of history in Norway that most Anglos are not familar and that history resonates with Norwegians even to this day. Norway was forced into a close union with Denmark in the 16th Century, and much of Norwegian culture was forcibly suppressed. It was pushed out of the arts and by the 17th Century, Danish was considered to be more deeply understood by Norwegians than by Danes themselves. By the 19th Century, a new love and appreciation of Norwegian art, culture and language developed that led to a kind of cultural renaissance in Norway. It was a massive cultural upheaval and led to a restoration of all things Norwegian.

This cultural upheaval can be felt and seen in the works of a great number of artists, but no less than Roald Kristian, whose works, when looked at today, are as remarkable as they were avant garde when first created. Most Norwegians didn't study in Norway and the simmering resentment held against Denmark and Sweden, meant there were few artists who chose those countries for studying. Many chose Germany and France. Those that studied in Germany had a result in their art that could be expected. There was a general heaviness of their work and the printwork of the period was evocative of the German passion for the volk. Less play of light and line, and the only thing that lifted many of those earlier works, was a different sensibility. Over time, Berlin was preferred, and then finally, Paris.

Kristian was clearly influenced in the art of the period, and there is a strong influence of Max Klinger as well as the works of Gerard Munthe, whose illustrations for fairy tales had a massive effect in Europe of changing the ideas of color. Munthe also worked mostly on paper, and it was here that Kristian often worked. One of the things that I find fascinating about Krisitian is that his works are clearly influenced by German and French art movements, but there is also something very important in his works that are a reflection on Norwegian aesthetics also. You see, Norway has always had a wonderful reputation for industrial arts, and arts and crafts have been an important part of the society for centuries. One of those was wood carving, and traditionally wood carving was of great importance, and it is the intersection of these disparate aspects, that help to explain Kristian's works. His works have a starkness of detail and strength in contrast, and although they seem to be simple at first blush, they are wonderfully expressionistic.

Kristian will continue to be forgotten no doubt, but it doesn't mean we need to ignore his rather fascinating statements through printmaking. It is impossible to criticize his technique. Kristian didn't seem to attach much to colours or symbolic meaning. He was instead much more interested in the idea of line and the monochromatic aspect of his works were very important to the French and German printmakers of the period, as they often attached emotional values to colour. There is something modern and interesting in these works, and too often, we never hear from Norway or Scandinavian artists. Just for reference sake, each of these woodcuts dates to the early 1900's.

Josef Weisz (Germany 1894 - 1969)

2010-10-29T13:47:00.006+08:00

Weisz was a Munich born artist who worked predominantly in works on paper. He did a fair quantity of work as a book illustrator, and in his day was considered one of the finer German printmakers. He was especially famed for his plant studies, as well as his illustrations for Goethe's Faust in the 30's. His later life was focused mostly on the natural world but his works overall are handsome and well designed. I have never hidden my admiration of German artists and German printmakers, and it has been a while since I visited one.

Weisz adopted a different and more decorative formula, than many other German artists of the time and his style was to often reduce each object to the simplest and most essential elements. His portraits are interesting works in monochomatics and line, and everything is arranged according to dark and light. It leaves his works with a sense of serenity, and unlike many of his compatriots of the time, there is less that is visually jarring. The German illustrations too are very different from the British styles of the time, but Weisz's own style and presentation make his works indvidually interesting.

Examples of his work are not so easy to find and they are often confined to museums and library collections throughout Germany or to books most English speakers won't ever come across. His interests were in the technical and the expressive but he was also influenced by Japanese printmakers as well as the Geraman printmakers of the Reformation. There is an old-world quaintness with his works but the Japanese influence in his works work well, especially in the simple arrangement.

Tom Killion Master American Printmaker

2010-10-20T15:22:00.006+08:00

Tom Killion leads the casual observer of his art on a rich and visual journey, and anyone who has seen his works must be more than satisfied with the journey. His works owe a debt to the Japanese printmakers and his Japanese style prints are innovative and superb. Killion has a love of the California cost (as do I), and it shows in his determination in capturing the raw grandeur of the geography, especially the "Lost Coast". The sallow greys and the dull yellow all enlivened by discreet patches of attenuated greens and violets, and moody dark colours to capture the raw beauty of the area. His coloured prints breathe the spirit of California and he does this often without the sharp crack of brilliant colour. His works capturing Africa are just as sensitive and subtle, and in the past have left me disbelieving that they were in fact woodblock prints.

The cult of the Japanese print, has much to answer for. It created a whole new type of artist and hypnotized a whole generations of artists, and Killion was one of those artists. This print designer is a naturalist; an academic; world travelled and yet is still able to capture something very real. This is not always the case with very academic artists, but I think of Hainard and Seaby as men who were able to do it, and Killion would be in that grouping. He keeps his work up to date by chronicling the changing lights and moods of the places he captures, and especially in his clever arrangement of the material so as to make interesting the space he has to fill. However, Killion's work is a contrast to the intensity of many of the modern artists who work in the field. His monochromatic work is not always to my taste, but no doubt for many they are just as appealing and strong by virtue of their monochromatic punch.

There is a freshness in his approach and there is a kind of old-world serenity in the way that he has created his works. The California that he captures is not the tourist-haunted towns, instead he captures a rather rugged and often ignored California observed with new-world eyes. The images are delicately conveyed with fine, quiet touches, but perhaps the best way to describe his work is that he captures the spirit of the place. The effects of his interest in nature, Africa and California wrapped up in a traditional Japanese technique gives us an interesting set of influences exercised upon the artist. His works are crisply individual but it is when he uses his flat tones and his perspective with a simple arrangement of space that he suggests a Japanese aesthetic, but nowehere except in the USA could this kind of art be created and captured. Tom Killion has his own website, and you can buy works there directly of just go and take a look at his exceptional work.
http://tomkillion.com/app/index/

Francis Sydney Unwin (Britain 1885-1925)

2010-10-14T18:54:00.008+08:00

Unwin was one of the early stars of British printmaking and was considered one of the finest in most printmaking mediums until his untimely death related to tuberculosis. Unwin was the product of a very different art education in Britain which was primarily intended for the instruction of teachers and students or for entry into publications or the overwrought etchings market of Britain during the Victorian and Edwardian period. This instruction was thorough and intelligently directed, with a focus on mastering tools of art. A definite idea of the end to be achieved and of the means by which it may be reached is obviously conveyed in the works of Unwin. His works were methodical and he was an artist who was focused primarily on architectural topics and they are clear, clever and overall....dull. Although well conducted and crafted his works are sometimes mediocre, and others are feeble, but a large number are excellent.

The problem with Unwin, is that his skills are always present, and his methodical aspect is important to note as well, but there are aspects which are lacking. The problem is that any good student of art should know that the way to stand out is to be bold, definite without affectation or elaboration, however Unwin was trained in the Victoria period, and his works suffered. His Victorian aesthetic training shows. He was also very influenced by the German masters and studied there for a period in the use of the lithographic stone. They ultimately fail to stand the test of time. His Victorian and Edwardian prim aesthetic comes through in his subjects, and the principles of decoration are kept well in mind all the time.

Some of his designs are based on the 19th Century British interest of the classical period. Mournful British aesthetics are at play here, with the spacing, the proportions and all the lines, appropriate for the buying market. One of the most elaborate subjects which I featured for the posting is the image of Venice. A big topic for the Germans and the British but this work by Unwin is not ultimately well managed, and although the details are stunning, the elaborate lines and complexity of the image, just make the whole piece seem busy. It is a spirited piece, and it is competent as well as clever, but it is so fussily executed that my eyes have nowhere to rest.

The woodblock on the other hand is interesting not only for itself but as evidence of what could be done by the artists of the period, Sydney Lee, is another example. His woodblocks are far and away better than any of his other printworks. This is the case too for Unwin. Given up to etchings and engravings, it seems to me that many of the 19th Century printmakers , missed their true calling more than likely because of market dictation. The dominant note in his woodblocks, is warmth and humanity, rather than simply competence. With the woodblocks of Unwin and Lee as well, perhaps the finest thing is their economy of line.

I have always thought that one of the curses of the Victorians and the later Edwardians was the potent traditions of William Morris and his aesthetic. The complex and complicated richness of line and the spaces closely filled, seem to permeate much of the artistic printwork of the period. Some of Unwin's style of course, are frankly imitative of both the German and the Italian artists of an earlier time. Everywhere however, is the architectural structure of lines and angles, and of course Morris influenced opulence of ornamentation. These aspects of Unwin's works are both the crown and the curse of his works, and perhaps in time his work will have a retrospective and there will be a different evaluation. As for me, I will wait for that exhibition.

Burt Hasen (U.S.A 1921-2007)

2010-10-14T17:18:00.007+08:00

Thinking about Mesibov and the Whitney, made me think of Burt Hasen. Hasen was a printmaker and a painter born originally in New York. He studied there and after the intervention of World War II he continued to study in Paris, where his first one man show was held. He continued to exhibit in Europe and in 1959, went to study in Rome on the Fulbright Scholarship. His work was perhaps more popular in Europe than it was in the USA, but once he was included in a Whitney showing, his career was off. Although he was an artist, he also taught in varying settings. The thing about his works is that he reminds the viewer that they are looking at contemporary works. The thoughts, views and conventions of expression are wonderfully modernist and skilled.

Hasen also reminds us that the pictorial woodcut has a short history than painting and it's popularity waxed and waned depending on the styles of the time, but for Hasen the technique was just as expressive as any other technique. Hasen's print works are wonderful and represent a fascinating period of art in the 20th Century but mostly his use of colour conveys a sense of movement and light without compromising simplicty and the power of the line. The planes that flow into each other, and the contours of the undulating lines, are all important and they indicate specially accented depths. His works have a link to modernism in Europe and the USA and foreshadow the new school of art that came in late 60's and even the styles of the 50's. His works give significance to the line but there is no scrimping on colour either. He worked extensively in woodcut and linocuts and his skills in manipulating the mediums are fascinating.

Hasen was a modern master of line and colour, and although many others in the USA are given that mantle, Hasen's works are outstanding and although rare, he shouldn't be forgotten. My print, that I am sharing with you is a woodcut, from 1947.

Hugh Mesibov and a Clever Reader

2010-10-07T10:29:00.006+08:00

Peter sent me this fascinating story, with a fascinating piece of art....

"....The interesting thing is that it was purchased by Vera List and framed at Carus Gallery. Vera was one of the founding members of Friends of the Whitney, most of the art at Lincoln Center was hers, along with the large Chagalls and the Henry Moore in the reflecting pool. She also started the New School (where Mesibov had an early show) and started art centers, at MIT, Brown, others. She was also on the board at the Jewish Museum.

Carus Gallery was fairly big. I finally got in touch with the Carus estate and they date the sticker on the back of the Mesibov to a time early in the business when they also had a "frame only" shop as well as representing mainly European artists.

I got the Mesibov from Vera's daughters estate that was given to a school my kids were in. We raised over 100K from art that would have gone into a dumpster. Before we got the over 500 pieces of art, the family got everything of value, what was left was anything under 1k or unidentified.

I have had this piece for close to 10 years, and just stumbled across Mesibov's name in a slightly different search. I have only a few pieces left. Our big find was a Paul Thek that went to the Whitney. The signature was really hard to figure out, but after finding Mesibov's name in is definately his. After 10 years of searching I have finally ID'ed it. Yipee. "

Treasure from trash....one of my favourite kinds of tales.

Clever Readers....

2010-10-05T10:06:00.003+08:00

From Joerg in Germany and Polly in the USA, we have two very different compositions but created from the same technique. Joerg has shared his Helene Mass, and Polly, her rather unusual Hugo Noske terrier woodblock. The Noske intrigues me because I have never come across any other animal study he did. The Mass is stunning because she was the German master of clouds and water, and not many of her compatriots came close. Thank you to both for sharing and of course for reading.

Art and the Aesthete

Thanks to Juergen...

Gary Ratushniak (Canada 1957 - )

Jan Portenaar (Netherlands 1886 - 1958)

Lily Blatherwick (Britain 1859 -1934)

Eugène Carrière (France 1849 - 1906)

Duck!

Mabel Dwight (U.S.A 1876–1955)

June Wayne (U.S.A. 1918 - )

Lilian May Miller (U.S.A. 1895-1943)

George Biddle (U.S.A. 1885 - 1973)

Vacation

Edwardian Art and the unintended effect on Frederick Childe Hassam (U.S.A 1859–1935)

Fletcher Martin (USA 1904–1979)

Theodore Polos (Greece/USA 1902-1976)

Eugen Spiro (Germany 1874 - 1972)

Hideo Hagiwara 萩原 英雄 ( Japan 1913 – 2007)

To Have and To Hang

Koshiro Onchi 恩地 孝四郎 (Japan 1891 – 1955

Helen Hyde (U.S.A. 1868 - 1919)

Karl Köpping (Germany 1848 - 1914)

Gen Yamaguchi 山口源 (Japan 1896–1976)

Bertha Lum (America 1869-1954)

Harold Mallette Dean (America, 1907–1975)

Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松紫浪) (Japan1898 - 1991)

The Yoshida Blues

Masuo Ikeda (Japan 1934-1997)

Ryohei Tanaka (田中良平) (Japan 1933 - )

Dr. Emma Bormann

Erik Desmaziéres (France 1948 - )

Mini Have and Hang

Arminius Hasemann ( Germany 1888 -1979 )

Erlund Hudson (Britain 1912 - 2011 )

Sepp Frank (Austria 1889 - 1969) )

Arthur Rigden Read (Britain 1879 - ) active ca. 1900-1930

William Strang by way of Alfons (Alphonse) Legros

Augustus John and the Eye of the Beholder.

The Eyes of Laura Knight

Aloys Wachlmayr, (Austria 1892-1940)

Takumi Shinagawa （品川工） (Japan 1908 - 2009)

To Have and To Hang Part Deux

Nigel Lambourne (Britain 1919-1988)

An Unseen Armitage

To Have and to Hang

Anders Zorn (Sweden 1860 - 1920)

Reginald Savage (Britain )

Birger Sandzén (USA. 1871 - 1954)

Arthur Wesley Dow (U.S.A. 1857-1922)

John Buckland-Wright (1897-1954)

To Have and to Hang

Art and Commerce

Request for Help

Winter Wonderland

More Walter J Phillips

Dr. Emma Bormann (Austria/USA June 29, 1887 - December 28, 1974)

Not to be Outdone

Floriate

Ethel Kirkpatrick

The Genius of Urushibara

Holiday Wishes

Graphically Stated

Touch of Frost

A Rare Verpilleux

Barry Flanagan (Britain 1941 - 2009)

Rupert Shephard (Britain/South Africa 1909-1992 )

An Additional Margaret Barnard

Walter Hoyle (Britain 1922-2000)

Margaret Barnard (Britain 1900 - 1992)

Nigel Lambourne (Britain 1919 - 1988)

Julia and All the Pretty Horses

Shin Hanga and Europe

An Appreciation of the Japanese Print

A Correction

Urushibara and Frank Morley Fletcher

A Hallmark

To Have and To Hang

Roald Kristian (Norway 1893 - 1918)

Josef Weisz (Germany 1894 - 1969)

Tom Killion Master American Printmaker

Francis Sydney Unwin (Britain 1885-1925)

Hideo Hagiwara 萩原英雄 ( Japan 1913 – 2007)

Koshiro Onchi 恩地孝四郎 (Japan 1891 – 1955