A diversity of printing methods evident in the works of six artists from Ukraine, Iran, and Austria
Lera Elur ((Ukraine)
Margo Sarkisova (Ukraine)
Maryam Farhang (Iran)
Katharina Windisch (Austria)
Josef Fürpaß (Austria)
Herwig Tollschein (Austria
“Struggle & Contemplation“ aims to demonstrate the diversity and potential of an artistic genre that is often underestimated and occasionally even deemed inferior. A look at the long history of printmaking easily shows that there’s no reason for disdain. Depending on how the genre is defined, the date of its beginnings varies. Handprints were already in evidence in the caves of the Stone Age; a narrower definition marks the fourteenth century as the era of printmaking milestones, while the fifteenth century gave us Albrecht Dürer, the first major figure of both woodcut and engraving. The list of artists who have used printmaking techniques to create masterpieces in their respective oeuvre is long and ranges from the above-mentioned Nuremberg master to Rembrandt, Hokusai, Munch, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, and Hundertwasser – and on to Warhol, Gertsch, and Haring. The list continues.
Printmaking has long since emancipated itself from its ancestor, drawing – but the relationship between the two remains close. Printmaking techniques – for instance aquatint, silkscreen, and monotype – also, however, allow for very painterly results, which makes it possible to combine shapes, surfaces, and lines and to set accents both strong and subtle.
