Page 69 - Studio International - June 1970

Grafiska his newer work. Particularly inventive in dence as Olsson studied for a time in Copen-
etching, he is the present chairman of Grafiska hagen. His figures are again puppet-like, but
their stocky crudeness leans towards un-
Sallskapet at Sallskapet. sophisticated folk art.
Nemes is probably better known here for his
paintings, but he has also worked as a print- Remembering the Printmakers' Council exhi-
the Morley maker for many years. Coming to Sweden in bition, one can see many current approaches
1940 from an international background, he common to Britain and Sweden. But there are
Gallery has strongly influenced many young Swedish differences too. Direct social-political com-
ment was relatively rare with the British,
artists through his work and teaching. His
idiom has progressed from a personal Surreal- while the Swedes seem less concerned with
ism in the forties, through an increasingly `hard edge' abstraction; (011e Baertling's
fragmented non-figurative approach during prints are not in this exhibition). In Sweden
the fifties, to his comparatively fresh and printmaking is becoming very important in
A year ago the Printmakers' Council mounted informal later manner. His very individual the popular spread of art. The `Multikonse
a large exhibition at MORLEY COLLEGE. We work is restless and rather menacing, but at exhibition of 1967 and the subsequent
now have the opportunity of seeing the work the same time sensuous and refined. exhibition of Multiple Art in schools through-
of the equivalent Swedish organization, which Lennart Landqvist was a Nemes pupil, al- out the country were successful in attracting
this year celebrates its sixtieth anniversary. though he did not immediately take up print- a considerable public for cheaply priced good-
q
Although engraving in Sweden goes back at making. His colour etchings resemble Abstract quality modern art.
least four centuries, it was not until the end of Expressionism, but besides their frottage-like JOHN BOULTON SMITH
the last one that Swedish graphic art really textures, their dynamic patterns also suggest
started to expand, stimulated by the success of the natural forces behind titles such as Ice [Illustrations page 288. The Morley College
Anders Zorn's brilliantly fluent etchings. The Age. Karl-Erik Haggblad, one of the best exhibition extends until July 4.]
graphic school at the Royal Academy started printmakers in Sweden today, also uses dy-
in 1895. Soon after 1900 the new type of namic abstract textures. In his 'heat engrav- `EXCLUSIVELY YOURS'-AN EXHIBITION OF
woodcut began to become popular; besides ings' he builds up the plates with solder, not COLLECTIVE MONOPRINTS
the obvious influence here from other Scand- unlike Rolf Nesch's development of the metal
inavian pioneers such as Munch and Gallen- print in Norway during the thirties. Haggblad's Harvey Daniels, Peter Hawes and Silvie
Kallela, many of the artists studied in Munich prints have a very positive character, with Turner are all highly accomplished artists in
under the Japan-trained Emil Orlik. Some of their directional vitality of strong embossed their own right; their work at Brighton Col-
the best works were by young artists like the patterns and their primary colours moulded lege of Art has been instrumental in making it
pioneers of Swedish Fauvism and Cubism, against the white paper. The work of Bengt the major College-based print centre in the
Grunwald and Deckert. During the twenties Landin and Gunnar Söderström is also country. Their works in the recent exhibition
and thirties, however, etching and drypoint largely non-figurative, but without the all- at the Kemp Town Gallery, Brighton, were
remained generally more important. Work over informal quality of the last artists. Landin all monoprints in combinations of different
was still largely figurative, idioms ranging from combines toned shapes with a wiry etched graphic media, each worked on by all the
a kind of New Objectivity to bizarre fantasy line, sometimes including a secondary figura- artists. They are assemblage prints in the
or nature lyricism. Radical change did not tive image or lettering. From this combination sense that they contain no original drawing
come until the fifties, when Jurgen von grow the volumed shapes of his Unknown but are made from objects gathered from all
Konow started teaching at the Royal Landscapes, suggesting, but not describing, manner of sources.
Academy. Konow encouraged his better parallels with bodies or ranges of hills. Fre- The first impression is of professional elegance
students to go on to Paris and study with quently they are enclosed in circles, several and sophisticated wit, but the range of
Friedlaender or at Atelier 17, at the same time being printed on one sheet. Söderström uses expression is large. Fabric textures and
introducing some of Hayter's methods into more clearly defined abstract shapes, which illustration details give decorative charm in
Sweden. His lead in internationalizing Swedish grow into elegant hieroglyphs for unknown Rose Wall; Elephants and Teapots clinches an
printmaking has been carried on by Philip creatures as in his 'Fabled Beast' series. unlikely but apt visual metaphor. Knitting
von Schantz, Professor at the Royal Academy Many Swedish artists today are concerned Bag started with abstract dots, grew figurative
since 1963. with social criticism and radical political through its handle and has become a model of
Those who saw his work at the Bradford sentiment and for them the print has been an sophisticated intelligence by addition of the
Biennial will already know von Schantz as a obvious vehicle. Bengt Böckman (who also artists' trademark'. But they can also be
fastidious and sophisticated artist. Although he exhibited at Bradford) is one of the most expressionistic or surrealistic. The evocative-
has produced some straightforward decora- original of these. His human figures are tiny ness of fur, extended ever since Meret
tive prints, most that [] have seen are closer to puppets, dwarfed by overpowering mechanical Oppenheim's famous cup and saucer, was
Surrealism. At times he can remind one of interiors whose structures loom menacing, here further stretched by actually printing a
Redon or Magritte, but generally there is a like modern Piranesi prisons. His prints are fur coat and turning it with inspired op-
refinement and lucidity of thought, sometimes finished with an appropriately hard precision. portunism into a haunting hairy beast.
coupled with a polished wit, which give his Lindberg also produces etchings of urban The artists arrived at their idea together
etchings an individual flavour. Two other structures, but his woodcuts have a more while collecting material for a book on print-
seniors here are Felix Hatz and Endre powerfully brutal dynamism, like the menac- making. They regard it as working something
Memes. Hatz was early attracted by Munch, ing throb of the industrial scene. The equally out of their system rather than attempting to
whom he knew personally, and Van Gogh, powerful woodcuts of Alf Olsson portray a revolutionize the contemporary print market.
and for some time his paintings and prints re- different world, showing figures in landscapes, But in fact they may even have started to do
mained figurative, with lyrical and symbolic sometimes under a burning sun (he calls one this. These prints look just as individual as
overtones. During the fifties they became series of prints 'Van Gogh'), at others against most original prints and, although each is a
more abstract and informal, although still trees. The dominance of rugged but orderly `one off', their modest cost (£6) is consider-
containing secretive references to natural black and white textures reminds one of the ably lower than that of editioned prints by
phenomena, and this process has continued in Dane, Palle Nielsen, which may be no coinci- most single artists. q
283