Engraving

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Week 15, Monday

by

How could I not commemorate this day with an image of MLK? Not surprisingly, there are numerous photographs of MLK, some paintings and drawings and a very few prints. After looking at numerous paintings, drawings and the handful of prints, I’ve chosen 3 images to present.

The first is a pencil drawing that I just love, by an artist named Willie Jones Jr, otherwise famous for paintings and drawings of military aircraft. The second is a lithograph by Ben Shahn printed together with a King quotation. The third is an engraving from the US Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing (yes, the people who design and make our paper money!)

Before presenting the images, I will share a less commonly found quotation from MLK which I like.
“If you can’t fly, then run
If you can’t run, then walk
If you can’t walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward. “

Pencil drawing by Willie Jones Jr.
Lithograph by Ben Shahn
Engraving from the US Treasury

Armin Landeck, stylized and textured New York scenes: week 6, day 7 (Friday)

by

Armin Landeck (1905-1984) was trained as an architect, but couldn’t find work in that field, which was print art’s gain. He was a contemporary and friend of Martin Lewis, and together with a third print artist they opened a printmaking school, which failed within a year due to the Depression. He and Lewis continued to produce exquisite prints.

In his early work, he delivered beautiful and very detailed and realistic prints, somewhat reminiscent of John Taylor Arms. He began playing with textures and more stylized portrayals of light as his art matured.

I’ve chosen two of his prints which I love. Both display the amazing texture he adopted in the later phase of his career, and Restaurant shows a little bit of his stylized light.

Narrow Street (1948, engraving and drypoint)

Restaurant (1951, engraving)

Week 2 of share-a-print-a-day: Martin Lewis

by

To round out my first week of share-a-print-each-day, I’m returning to the artist that started it all for me, Martin Lewis (1881-1962). Lewis was born in Australia, but emigrated to the US in his teens and settled here, finding various ways to support himself with his artistic talents until eventually succeeding financially as a serious artist in the heyday of print art in the US. Lewis was an ardent printmaker, experimenting with numerous different intaglio techniques including many variations on both engraving and etching. Today’s print was produced by drypoint, an engraving technique that allows very fine lines and detail at the expense of producing a plate that degrades after a fairly small number of prints. Drypoint plates rarely produce more than 25 or so high-quality impressions, often less, and there are often noticeable differences even a few impressions apart. Since it’s Saturday morning, I’m sharing a lovely morning scene in Manhattan titled Quarter to Nine, Saturday’s Children, illustrating people going to work on E. 34th St at Park Avenue on a Saturday morning. The title is derived from the nursery rhyme “Monday’s child is fair of face….” in which “Saturday’s child works hard for a living”.