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The art of Erik Desmazières

La Place Désertée (1979).

Yet another French artist specialising in etchings with a focus on imaginary architecture. No dedicated website, unfortunately, so I’ve posted more images than usual. Of note is Desmazières’ illustrated edition (now out of print) of the Borges’ ficcione, The Library of Babel, published by Les Amis du Livre Contemporain in France and David R Godine in the US.

Erik Desmazières was born in Rabbat, Morocco, son of a French diplomat. He spent his childhood in Morcco, Portugal, and France. Desmazières studied at the Institute d’Etudes Politique, political science and took an evening art course at the Cours du Soir de la Ville. After graduation he decided to pursue a career as an artist.

Considered to be one of the finest printmakers of his generation, Desmazières was strongly influenced by artists such as Giovanni Piranesi and Jacques Callot. Erik Desmazières work is represented by galleries in Europe, the United States, and Japan and is collected by important museums worldwide.

Update: Erik Desmazières at Velly.org.

Exploration (1984).

Continue reading “The art of Erik Desmazières”

The art of André Beuchat

Sancta sanctorum (1999).

O temps, suspends ton vol… (1992).

Architectural and other fantasies at Galleria del Leone and the artist’s own site.
Once again, small reproductions. Some of the same works in slightly larger size here.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive

The art of Yves Doaré

Ange (1981).

Le réservoir (1979).

Yves Doaré is well known for his paintings and drawings but better known for his haunting etchings, drypoints and wood engravings. Doaré began exhibiting his art in France in 1966 and since that time his art has been the subject of one man exhibitions at the Gallery Sumers, New York (1975), the Gallery Michele Broutta, Paris (1982), the House of Culture, Orleans (1985), the Gallery Dom Quichotte, Rome (1987), Workshop of Arts, Douarnenez (1993) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chamalieres, Belgium (1994). His art is now included in such public collections as the Museum of Annecy, the Museum of Morlaix, the Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, and the National Library of Paris.

Many of Doaré’s original etchings and engravings explore the theme he has termed, “a kind of geological memory.” Using as his starting point the actual etching plate or engraving block, Doaré explores the surface’s capacity to reveal its own forms and figures. Much like a sculptor, Doaré thus orchestrates the emergence of the random forms which the surface suggests.

More pictures at the Fitch-Febvrel Gallery, Galleria del Leone and the artist’s own site.

Update: more reproductions at Velly.org.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive

The art of Philippe Mohlitz

Planche où je me suis perdu (1972).

31 Decembre (1982).

Batir (1989).

Recipient of the Grand Prix L.G. Baudry 2000, Philippe Mohlitz is well known to printmakers and collectors for having spectacularly rescued the art of copper engraving from a long period of increasingly stiff and stylized treatment. A true virtuoso of the burin (engraving tool), Mohlitz has restored a freedom of line to the medium not seen for centuries. In his best work he achieves a flow of light, particularly difficult to render in engraving, reminiscent of Dürer’s “St. Jerome in his Study”. The artist’s imagination, moreover, is equal to his technique, with fantastic visions which fascinate in both composition and detail.

Frustratingly small reproductions of what appear to be very detailed engravings here and here. Slightly larger images gathered here.

Update: another gallery of pictures at Velly.org.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive

Angels 4: Fallen angels

The Treasures of Satan by Jean Delville (1894).

Some more favourite paintings today. Jean Delville produced a splendidly strange portrayal of Satan as an undersea monarch lording it over a sprawl of intoxicated, naked figures. When Savoy Books decided to put together the definitive version of David Lindsay’s equally strange fantasy novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, I felt this was the only painting adequate to the task of filling out the cover. That was in 2002; a year later Gollancz used the same painting on the cover of their Fantasy Masterworks paperback edition of the book. Lindsay’s book has been plagued by bad cover art for years so we managed to raise the bar for future editions. Delville was one of the great painters of the Symbolist school, all his work is worth looking at.

There are numerous representations of Lucifer but Franz Stuck’s is especially striking and apparently caused viewers to cross themselves before it when it was first exhibited.

Gustave Doré’s tumbling figure is from his illustrated edition of Paradise Lost, a book full of armour-clad, spiky-winged angels. Some of those wings have even found their way into my work via the miracle of Photoshop.