Celebrating Print Magazine

Biannual magazine on art print and printmaking in Central and Eastern Europe. Original articles, essays, commentaries, print projects and interviews. In case of reblog (of our writings or our reblogs): please keep the source and the attached artist...

[magictransistor]

Viera Bombová. Bratislava. 1932.

[celebratingprint]

The Chronology of Hungarian Printmaking: Kamilla Szij

Another artist exploring traditional techniques in a contemporary condition is Kamilla Szij (b. 1957), who began her artistic career in the mid-1980s. She applies the basic element of intaglio printmaking—a line incised into the plate—to produce compositions through the mechanic rotation of the engraved matrix or sheets of paper during the printing process. Szij’s installations of prints are also characterized by a postminimalist expression. Her individual images with different combinations of lines are organized into continuous series, aligned as large-scale pictures of interrelating elements. The lines, their shape, thickness and size, carry no inherent significance, but when one looks at the composite whole, there appears an essential form, evoking the throb of life as a multitude of accidental and predestined moments. The artist’s drypoints are based on the repetition and perpetual superposition of identical movements and the minimal difference that entails.

Julia Meszaros, Defied Traditions and Technological Trends, The Chronology of Hungarian Printmaking, in Celebrating Print Volume 2 Number 2. This issue is available in print and digital at www.celebratingprint.com.

Image: Kamilla Szij, Drypoint Series from 45 Parts, 2007, drypoint on paper, 43 3/8 x 78 3/4 inches (110 x 200 cm), photograph by Gyorgy Burian.

[design-is-fine]

Èva Witz, Hand-painted Easter Eggs, 1979-2003. Hungary. Via Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest

[smithprintmaking]

Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe’s Lips, 1962 Two panels: 211 x 205 cm and 211 x 210 cm

Eight Elvises 1963

Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times 1963

[smithprintmaking]

Christiane Baumgartner

Kleines Seestück III, 2011 Woodcut on ShiragikuJapanese paper 24 2/5 × 36 1/5 in

Nachtfahrt, 2009 Woodcut on Zerkall paper, I-IX from a portfolio of nine images 20.3” x 25” Edition of 25

Luftbild, 2008-2009 Woodcut on Kozo paper 102.4” x 137.8” Edition of 3

[smithprintmaking]

Sigmar Polke Ohne Titel (Sfumato) Offset Lithography 28 x 25 cm 1991

[ein-bleistift-und-radiergummi]

1967 Hungarian Mid Century Shoe Poster by Éva Kemény and László Sós.

(via eBay)

[celebratingprint]

As artists create the matrix, they confront a boundary, standing on the edge of the image they wish to depict. Although they may expect to create yet another mirrored imprint of their image, the may also be surprised at what actually transfers onto the paper. At this point, artists will balance between the traditions of established [printmaking] techniques, their artistic concert and their craft.

Lenka Vilhelmova: Exploring the Physical State of the Matrix, in Celebrating Print Magazine, Volume 1 Number 1. 

[printstamps]

Beata Kubon - artist book “Szare Ziemie” (Gray Lands)

During my Fulbright fellowship year in Poland, I was introduced to the work of Polish artist Beata Kuboń who works in printmaking and book arts.  Beata was a student of an artist-colleague and Witt Visiting Artist Aleksandra Janik who came to Stamps in October 2015. I am pleased to share images of Beata’s graduate MFA thesis works produced at the Wroclaw School of Printmaking.  Born in 1990, Beata graduated from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in 2016.

Beata says about her work: “The idea of making illustrations for my own book was a major reason why I applied to the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. I wanted to learn how to make beautiful, handcrafted, high quality books and illustrations. So I choose graphics department, with printmaking classes, and I fell in love with it. Now, after five years of studying, I may say: “I’ve done it”. Now I can present to the world my ideas, my completely self-made book. The story is a fantasy novel, which I’ve started to write about 6 years ago. In my prints, made in linocut, I was trying to show a little magic, nervous atmosphere. I was focusing on presenting particular scenes from the book, and major characters. I was adding color with screen-printing, to emphasize the mood of mystery and fantasy. In the design of the book, I was thinking about how it’s read, how to manipulate letters and spacing to make reading the most comfortable. I wanted to create something elegant and good quality in all aspects. I believe that every small detail matters, and that a good novel should go together not only with accurate illustration, but with fine materials, high quality paper, and design that is so sophisticated, that we almost don’t see it. That idea was also a goal I’ve wanted to achieve, and I leave it to you to judge it.”

[design-is-fine]

Such a beautiful book. Finn Juhl – godfather of Danish design – was not only a great designer but also a gifted artist, a master of watercolors. Here you see his major projects thru his drawings, they are meticulously made, to the last tip of a brush hair. Yes, we have perfect renderings today but this has soul. He sets a shadow and it gets 3D. And last but not least his choice of colors is so sensual and implies nature and feels warm and comfy. The good printing of the book underlines this aspect. If you want to get to know the designer Finn Juhl or if you want to impress somebody who is into design or architecture or if you just love watercolour drawings like me – this is the book you should keep an eye on. “Watercolors by Finn Juhl” by Anne-Louise Sommer. Published by hatjecantz / English.

[celebratingprint]

#watercolor #book

[celebratingprint]

More on Hungarian artist Dora Maurer, in @moma.

[celebratingprint]

Dora Maurer, in Hungarian Printmaking

“The complex links between the work, the artist and the environment have been subject to continuous research by Hungarian artist Dora Maurer (b.1937). After she completed an experimental period of creating surnaturalistic (see note below) compositions, Maurer exploited drypoint to explore simple geometric forms. She analyzed relationship between the plate and the traces it left on paper, as well as the act of multiplication and printmaking as a process of forming imagery. She examined the direct and indirect possibilities of leaving marks, the physical changes of the plate, the temporality of the printing process and the changes of the printed form ((de)formation series, 1974, Hidden Structures, 1979). In her last systematic series, Printing Till Exhaustion (1979), she documented the mechanical repetition of printmaking until the expiration of the plate. 

Maurer’s conceptual work sheds light on the fact that a print is not a static pictorial form, but part of artistic activity, in which the image’s existential state depends on the environment, along with its invention, creation, appearance and interpretation....”

Note: Sandor Hornyik, “Aesthetics in the shadow of politics: Surnaturalism and magical socialist realism in Hungary in the early Sixties,” Acta Historiae Artium 56, no. 1 (2015): 323-332.

Julia Meszaros, Defied Traditions and Technological Trends, The Chronology of Hungarian Printmaking, in Celebrating Print Volume 2 Number 2. This issue is available in print and digital at www.celebratingprint.com. To support our mission, please consider subscribing. 

Images above: Dora Maurer, Traces of a Circle 1-4, 1974, drypoint on paper, 35 x 50 cm image size, 50 x 70 cm paper size, edition of 10, photograph by Miklos Sulyok, collection of the artist (Budapest).

Image below: Dora Maurer, Printing till Exhaustion I, 1979, drypoint on paper, canvas, 100 x 70 cm (two pieces), edition of 4, photograph by the artist, collection of the artist (Budapest).

[momalibrary]

Cover of Konstruktivizm (1922) by Aleksei Gan, which elucidated Constructivist principles and especially, in its format, the Constructivist aesthetic in typography and page layout.

[design-is-fine]

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, book design for Eichendorff, Die Glücksritter, 1911. Insel Verlag, Germany. Via Christian Hesse

[artprintresidence]

Autumn light on carborundum print #artprintresidence #intaglio #print #carborundum (at Art Print Residence)

[celebratingprint]

A soft fall light on carborundum #print #matrix. #printmaking

[momalibrary]

Mladen Stilinovic’s Key Words in International Trade, 1989 (at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art)

[celebratingprint]

Mladen Stilinovic’s Key Words in International Trade, 1989, and other artists’ books on view at MoMA library. #conceptualart #artistbook

[ein-bleistift-und-radiergummi]

Jan Bulhak ‘House with Shadows, Nowogrodzkie’ 1909–1914.