Otto Dix. The War II/2: Shock Troop Advancing under Gas Attack. (1924).
Etching, aquatint and drypoint from MoMA Collection.
(May not be in Neue Gallery exhibition)

Artist-blogger Mark Vallen writes about “arts and culture, with an emphasis on socially conscious works” on his blog Art for a Change. I admire and appreciate his voice and empathize with the social issues he emphasizes. The last three posts have also been very meaningful to me as a printmaker.

Last week he wrote about the sudden closing of Self Help Graphics, an East Los Angeles’ institution dedicated to Chicano art, printmaking and grassroots community arts. This was followed by a post about the ensuing protests and his involvement in trying to encourage dialogue to keep it open. I hope a positive and happy ending will be found for the artists dependent on this institution.

Today’s post is about an exhibition of antiwar prints by two German Expressionist artists: “WAR/HELL: Master Prints by Otto Dix and Max Beckmann”, a collection of etchings and lithographs now showing through September, 2005, at the Neue Galerie in New York City. Vallen writes: If it all sounds terribly familiar, it should. Dix and Beckman not only succeeded in exposing the ugly realities of war in a way that hadn’t been done since Goya’s print series, The Disasters of War – they also effectively created artworks that stepped outside of their timeframe and place of national origin. Please read the entire post and visit the Gallery’s site to see the (unfortunately) few images. I found the gallery’s mission statement very interesting too.

I’ve been fortunate in seeing some of each artists’ work in Germany and elsewhere, and have always felt their work disturbing, with a very strong gut reaction of horror every time – definitely in the class of Goya’s Disasters of War and Picasso’s Guernica.

This email recently came from Tomoyo, who just finished an exhibition in Vancouver:

“hello, everyone. Spring in vancouver and semi-spring in Edmonton..
I came to edmonton hopefully to see beavers, buffalos and water..
Please come by to see the show if you are in edmonton. tomoyo”

“Searching for Agua” is on at the SNAP Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta March 24th – April 30th, 2005, with the opening reception on Thursday, March 24th 7 – 9 pm.

Japanese-Canadian artist Tomoyo Ihaya’s work centres on the theme of water. Her exhibition Searching for Agua delves into the expressions of the water/life duality – literally, symbolically and spiritually throughout the world. “Recently, I spent two months in Mexico. In such a culturally dense country, one of the most memorable things in every day life is a drinking water vendor coming every day screaming “Agua” every day, the word has become one of my favorite vocabularies to provoke my visual imagination and contemplation” – from Snap’s web-site.

SNAP is a gallery and printmaking studio run by the Society of North Alberta Print-Artists, which I’ve mentioned before in these pages. You may be interested in viewing the excellent website, especially their new Virtual Gallery, featuring prints by some of Canada’s foremost printmakers.

DUET, an exhibition of collaborative prints by Taiga Chiba and Eunjin Kim will be presented at Dundarave Print Workshop March 10 to April 3, 2005. The opening is from 5:00 pm to 8:30 pm on March 10th. If you are close by, the artists invite you to please drop in.

Dundarave Print Workshop is a co-operative artist’s studio with a gallery, found at 1640 Johnston Street on Granville Island, Vancouver. Gallery hours are 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays or by appointment 604-689-1650 with the artists. Dundarave’s website includes some member pages, including Taiga’s.

My good friend Taiga is certainly a very hard-working and busy artist. He’s appeared in these pages twice previously, when I wrote about his exhibition at Art Beatus last December, and about his talk about his teaching at Baker Lake.

Granville Island was also the subject of a post here last summer and in late fall.

Today we finally made it out to see the touring exhibition ‘The Power of Place – 30 Years of Printmaking in Newfoundland’ at the Burnaby Art Gallery.

Some weeks ago I wrote about this in some detail – if you missed it, please read that post for the background information.

This collection of prints from St. Michael’s Printshop appeared very strong and well presented, with each artist represented by several pieces to reveal their unique visions and a variety of techniques, mostly lithographs, etchings, and relief. Each piece had something to say to me, but some of my favourites, in no particular order, were Jerry Evans’ lithograph ‘Guide and Protector of All the Children’, Anne Meredith Barry’s accordion-fold book ‘Shallow Bay Beach Walk’, Helen Gregory’s exquisite little mezzotint ‘Plundered’, Sylvia Benzsa’s collagraph ‘Rock Facing’, Sharon Puddester’s drypoints, William Ritchie’s beautifully drawn lithographs of birds and fish with hidden human features, Heidi Oberheide’s mysterious ‘Self Portrait’, and, most associated with Newfoundland seem to be Don Wright’s images of fishermens’ lives.

(To see some examples of the artists’ works online, though not always the same as in this exhibition, check out the links in my earlier article.)

I noticed an absence of “newer” computer-based processes and outsized works, which probably reflected the small space at St. Michael’s. Later, skimming through the exhibition catalogue written by curator Patricia Grattan, I read about this printshop’s dedicated focus on printmaking, but also the challenges it now faces: at a time when many printmakers elsewhere have abandoned traditional print media and editioning in favour of computer-based processes and the “one-off” incorporation of print elements into multi-media works […]SMP’s challenge will be to find its “niche market”.[…] The Printshop has continued to nourish the work and development of hundreds of artists from Canada and other countires/ But its most significant contributions have been to the development of artists in Newfoundland and to awareness of Newfoundland art beyond provincial boundaries.

The exhibition continues until Feb. 27th, don’t miss it! It will be next in Halifax in September and in Winnipeg spring 2006.

Additional reading: Article in Burnaby Now

Going to the Burnaby Art Gallery is a treat, as I love this beautiful old building, full of character and history, and set amongst lovely gardens of almost ready to bloom rhododendrons and spring bulbs. Today’s warm sunshine sparkling over Deer Lake beckoned us down to the lakeshore trail for a walk and to check out the local waterfowl, including the fat and noisy Canada geese.