Seen at the Musee Picasso, Paris

Picasso in his attic studio, Rue Des Grands Augustins, late 1930s

I didn't intend to write about Picasso yet again after my recent trip to Paris. But my wife and I were passing the museum anyway, and when we went into the museum shop to look for gifts to take back to the USA, I saw that it was the final day of a "masterpieces" exhibition. That is, it was a survey of Picasso's eight decades of making art, with lots of pieces on loan from museums in other parts of Europe, making up a show that might not be repeated in exactly the same form for a long time.

So, for example, the first room displayed the teenage Picasso's "Science and Charity," a show painting completed in the hopes of being exhibited at a national exhibition in Madrid in 1897. And the last room contained one of his last paintings inspired by Rembrandt, together with a Rembrandt self-portrait on loan from the Louvre.

Two things really took my attention during this visit, because they were items I had never seen before. The first was a selection of the actual lithographic stones etched by Picasso some time in the 1950s. The stones were attached to the wall next to prints that were taken from them:

Click on the images to display full size

Best of all was a giant collage that he made around 1937 in his studio at the Rue des Grands Augustins (the photo at the top of this post shows Pabs standing in front of the collage). This was the same time and place that he painted Guernica, and the giant collage had a lot of the same elements of striking design and ceaseless rhythmic energy, but with the added element of colour. The collage has been undergoing extensive renovation for years, and so seeing it was like discovering a completely new work by Picasso.

Restoring my Printing Press

I've just finished restoring and assembling my large etching press -- a six week process involving lots of rust removal, scrubbing with steel wool, and repainting. Here is a photo of the same kind of press from the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative: And here is a short YouTube video of me testing the press, making sure the motor still works after nearly seven years of lying in storage:

Click here to read more

Brancusi in Plastic

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau is showing these columns made from recycled plastic cartons and lids in the window of the Columbia College bookstore on Michigan Avenue. They are a playful homage to Brancusi's "Endless Columns", with a serious environmental message for our times: Image copyright Inhabitat.com and Mary Ellen Croteau Mary Ellen also runs a wonderful experimental art gallery in a window space in west Chicago, called Art on Armitage . I will be exhibiting a mixed media piece there during August 2012.

Click here to read more

How to etch a linoleum block

Linoleum as a material for printmaking has been used for nearly a hundred years now. Normally, you cut an image out using special gouges similar to woodcut tools, cutting away the lino around the image you want to print. This is called relief printmaking, because if you look at the block from the side, the material that remains stands up in relief from the backing material. You then roll ink with a brayer over the surface of the block, place paper over it, and either print by hand or run it through a press. You can do complex things this way (for example, reduction linocuts), but the beauty of the process is that it is quick, simple, and direct. Incised lino block, from me.redith.com Etched lino block, from Steve Edwards A few years ago, I saw some prints that were classified as coming from etched linoleum blocks, and I loved the textures I saw in them. In the last few months, I've been trying to use this technique in my own studio, learning about it as one does these d...

Click here to read more

Praeterita

Search This Blog