Too many legs for those cranes

... there are some images that keep stirring around my head. One, are those of Lucia Noguiera's film Smoke (1996) that I saw in parts at the Tate on Tuesday. I wish I hadn't been so annoyed by Francis Alys's posturing and would have gone back again to see this rather quiet film about a performance involving kites, umbrellas, two kiosks, a bench and little else.

But: the other image is captured and a bit more considered than this glimpse at Smoke.
It involves a colourist woodblock print, done in the Great Norther Wastes somewhere in China, and is part of the current exhibition at the British Museum on The printed image in China.

 Country Sentiments/ Xiangqing by Hao Boyi (b. 1938), 1983,
Woodblock print in oil-based inks and colour on paper, c40x55cm

After having seen a couple of printmaking exhibitions in the gallery space of the BM I find the space too stuffy and archival for prints that were so clearly concerned with the world around those who made them, commissioned them and used them - like those in the Mexican revolution or now the 20c Chinese prints.

The texts that go alongside the prints are in part banal, in part patronising: either it's political as in propaganda, or it's not political as it concerns a landscape.

This print here is thus, arguably, about a backward, idyllic rural scene. Done by a generation of printmakers and other artists, the Beidahuang movement, who joined 100,000 demobbed soldiers in the late 1940s to 'cultivate' the plains.

The print caught me (unsurprisingly) for its colourist qualities: those fields of hue and contrast.
Yet, upon closer inspection:

• Why are there so many more legs than cranes?
• And, why does the sedge grow across the birds' bodies? 

Surely, the artist would have been able to match up his separate woodblocks in a way to match bird body with bird legs; and surely he would know that sedges don't grow on bird bodies?

So, why did he divert, subvert or at least distort such realistic representation of rural life in the Northern Wastes. I wonder if the author of the accompanying text is right with their comment that  such "nostalgic scene is typical of his lyrical, colourful style".

So, is political only accepted as party political ideology? Is there not so much more going on, that is not easily read from without? Says she, thinking of the great commentary that Frontier Blues provided of northern Iran, also part of the culture programme in the big city last week.

As for the printmaking:

• many of the prints make explicit use of water-based inks and how they disperse on damp paper. There are some very good examples of that, e.g., Dawn Melody/ Chen qu by Lu Fang (born 1932), 1983
• also: it seems common to handcolour part of the prints later
• as David Hockney mentioned, there is something curious going on with perspective. - It's obvious in some of the prints, such as Sunrise at Nanhu/Nanhu richy by Shi Handing (born 1930), 1981. - The horizon line is variable and objects don't necessarily recede. I need to have a closer look at this and what possibilities it affords.
• as to Hao Boyi, the artist of Country Sentiments, there seems plenty more of him around the inet. Look at his work and the context. Maybe I'll even find something about the missing cranes' bodies?

portfolio week

... is now. with a grin on my face i'm mounting this and that. pulling another folder out out of the depth of 'underneath my bed' or 'behind my wardrobe'. oh, yes... i should have another drawing of this. somewhere. (there have been plenty of 'portfolio days' over the past few months but now we're approaching physical handover day on friday).

portfolio making is curating. in an a1 bookformat. as such it is intriguing: to observe the juxtaposition of disparate pieces in approach but in similar palette; to place next to each other sketchbook pages and a relief print from some time later as the latest development of a sketch. and to see and acknowledge the sheer amount of labour that has gone into this - visible and invisible - over the years. as well as the threads, lines of inquiry and departures across a variety of media and approaches.

a pair of fresh eyes, hands and thoughts and the resultant placing of sheets next to each other makes all the difference. thank you, l! though i know that you don't really see the point of painting ;)

this one is one of the sheets. the collagraph at the bottom was the result of my printmaking before christmas. i still need to retry the transfer process, have indeed already sanded the plate down a bit further, and want to try on coloured paper. but placed beside the flattest of flat relief print it starts talking in unanticipated ways. keep it up, i think. i'll be listening. or should that be watching?

I never said...

... much more about the OCA Printmaking course. And that wasn't for the fact that it wasn't happening, only other things took over.

But when I came back, I had received back the comments from my tutor for the third assignment: it included the Fieldlines Reduction print, and various other pieces to try out different surfaces and different tools.

So, I printed with clay, styrofoam, hardboard, strips of lino and other vinyl surfaces. Used saws, hammers, screws and knives to make some marks. I did all that in May/June, over a number of weeks and was concentrated enough to build a nice wee register of experience: what tools do what on what surface but also more systematic trying out of different papers to print on, different applications of the ink and taking the print.

These are some of the prints I really enjoyed. The techniques and the marks are stored away for future use: Assignment 5 will be a series of different prints combining various techniques, tools and materials.

Untitled 1, lino print on printing paper, A4
Mixed white layer overprinted on mixed black layer,
Marks with screws, sidecutter and potato peeler
What effective fog this technique produces... so much can disappear in here...

Untitled Blue and red, 20x15cm, relief print on printing paper
the plate is styrofoam, marked with sidecutter, overprinting,
On different paper, it resulted in a shiny, metallic top layer


La luna y la Cordillera 1, Relief print, 20x15cm
Various plates, incl. lino, clay and foamboard;
Various marks, incl. saw, potato peeler and sidecutter.
Remember the full moon/sunset beauty in Chile?

Now: the next assignment is on collagraphs, I'm in two minds whether to start and try to finish in October, or to postpone it amidst all the hassle. But the hassle looks like a bit of a walk in the park, so...

BTW: the OCA now also offers a Printmaking 2 course. How exciting... I am tempted. And may end up getting an Art Degree in the end?

... and onto Munch's prints

Edvard Munch, Melancholy i, 1896
woodcut
[click on the image to get to the exhibition site to see a larger image]

I went to the preview tonight of the Hunterian Art Gallery's show of Edvard Munch's Prints. It was busy with important people and I was far too tired to pay too much attention other than a quick glance.

Hm... many woodcuts, many seashores and many figures... lonely and melancholic ones (but that's no surprise). I need to go back again, and again, and again... seeing that it's only 1 minute away from my office.

Maybe tomorrow at lunch, with my sketchbook. Fabulous marks, textures and colours...

Like this one.

Just a glimpse for tonight, but more of this to follow.

But first: a little bit of disappearing inbetween... to a birthday, over the weekend... After all, this is birthday month! So happy birthday, P. (yesterday), Torben (today!), R. (tomorrow), B., K., A., K., K., paint & pastel, and of course myself right at the end... happily planning the latter with a canoe trip on the Spree... - it doesn't make up for my assorted boat envy of my fellow watermarkers, but it'll be very fabulous all the same...

Print Project 3_1 aka Fields: done....

Fields, 25x20cm
6-layer reduction lino cut on Japanese Paper

Painting with linocutting?

The other WIP besides the new oil piece is this reductive linocut. I had done two layers before Chile and last night had proceeded with the next one.

First: the current layer in orange.

Fields, WIP (layer 3)
Linocut on Cartridge paper, 25x20cm

Now, that's a fairly graphic linocut. I was actually surprised to see it like that after having printed my edition of thirteen (for luck) sheets.

Surprised because the accumulated ultramarine, lemon yellow, orange looks rather messy like this:

Fields, WIP (three layers)
Linocut on Japanese paper, 25x20cm

Admittedly, the blue got a bit darker in value than planned, I mixed the yellow in various values and with differing amounts of whites - the idea was to get to a green for the forest in the background and a light, opaque field in the foreground. The idea is to add two more layers: a darker green and a dark purple. - It's the field image developed here.

The aim: to paint with linocutting. I.e., to trick the imagery away from sharp, distinct, graphic fields of colour to a much softer, painterly image. I remember the linocut that Tom bought a while back from the artist Ruth Robertson. So I thought, I could try and trick the medium into behaving like paint. Probably five layers (even with shading/dabbing) won't get me there; neither will it probably not get me there with the variety of cut marks and playing with the interplay of positive and negative spaces.

But: I'm having a good go at it nonetheless. It's actually very good fun. I am thoroughly enjoying the relief cutting by now and am almost sorry for progressing onto more experimental markmaking and collagraphs (glue, mold stuff onto the plate to print with collage). However, these tasks are giving me quite a good sense of what may be possible. I could spend far more time with this and am certain, that any art in future will be more hands on than merely holding a brush.

I like the process of losing fear and acquiring respect for a medium, its shticks and moods. I think that's also one of the reasons why I do like posting WIPs... to see where something goes, how it develops, falls aparts, changes form and character and so on.

Who's fed up yet?

Na, enough Trees on Water? Or can you deal with another one?

This is the one I will submit as part of the assignment:

Trees of water,
Lino print on Japanese paper
15x15cm

Do you recognise the colours? It's straight from Wolf Kahn's palette. I figured if I don't get round to the pastels all that much, I can do a bit of palette exploration in print. So, this is lime green and ultramarine blue. There is some intentional misalignment and some wiping back on the blue block.

Good. That's that pretty much done. On to the next. It'll be a reductive lino cut. Should I chose a trees on water reflection or something new for a change?

And a PS in form of a personalised message.
I., I may not have mentioned this before,
but I have a personal preference for your choice of three?
A subtle hint? How's this?
Thank you!!!

Colour towards the evening

Melancholie des Abends

- Der Wald, der sich verstorben breitet -
Und Schatten sind um ihn, wie Hecken.
Das Wild kommt zitternd aus Verstecken,
Indes ein Bach ganz leise gleitet

Und Farnen folgt und alten Steinen
Und silbern glänzt aus Laubgewinden.
Man hört ihn bald in schwarzen Schlünden -
Vielleicht, daß auch schon Sterne scheinen.

Der dunkle Plan scheint ohne Maßen,
Verstreute Dörfer, Sumpf und Weiher,
Und etwas täuscht dir vor ein Feuer.
Ein kalter Glanz huscht über Straßen.

Am Himmel ahnet man Bewegung,
Ein Heer von wilden Vögeln wandern
Nach jenen Ländern, schönen, andern.
Es steigt und sinkt des Rohres Regung.

Georg Trakl




Melancholy of the Evening

- The forest, which widens deceased -
And shadows are around it, like hedges.
The deer comes trembling out of hidden places,
While a brook glides very quiet

And follows ferns and ancient stones
And gleams silverly from tangled foliage.
Soon one hears it in black gorges -
Perhaps, also that stars already shine.

The dark plain seems endless,
Scattered villages, marsh and pond,
And something feigns a fire to you.
A cold gleam shoos over roads.

In the sky one anticipates movement,
An army of wild birds migrates
Towards those lands, beautiful, distant.
The stirring of reeds rises and sinks.
(Translation by Jim Doss and Werner Schmitt)


No poet I have found who is more colourful in darkness. I have had his poems for more than ten years - they were one of my leaving presents when I moved to Glasgow. But it was only last autumn that I begun reading them in their colourful, mournful strangeness.

And rather fitting for some digital exploration of different colourways for the print. Do you have a preference? Other suggestions?





And, for the migrating birds, something in song. It's melancholic too, albeit a bit softer it seems. It was on my music player when I switched it on on my way into town a few days ago on a rainy gloomy afternoon.

And then I'm spinning and I'm diving like a cloud of starlings.

... Hm, how very delicious that line is. And for a bit live starling action, how's this:

Es ist schon da!

Vielen, vielen Dank! Es kam gestern mit der Post. Und ich glaub, ich hab auch schon Opas Druck gefunden. Danke, dass du auch noch mal nachgefragt hast wegen der Ölbilder, Jutta!

Albert König, Alte Weiden
Wood cut, 1912, 41x31cm

Well, my parents very promptly and reliably delivered on their part of my printmaking project, and yesterday it arrived:

Albert König: Das druckgraphische Werk 1911-1941. Published 1989 by the Albert König Museum, Unterlüß.

• For a German Wiki entry on König, see here

• For the Albert König Museum, Unterlüß, see here

Well, it is full of traditional wood cuts, a few lino cuts of heathland, moorland, woods and fields. Birches and junipers twisted by wind and rain and plenty of eeriness. I had a quick look through it, and am posting a first taster.

My mum also included one of König's paintings, guess what: it's of some birch trees reflected in water. What a coincidence. Must be a rather common theme where I grew up, even 100 years ago.

Albert König, An der Quarmühle,
1920s, oil on canvas 75x60cm