By Katerina Kyselica | If you believe that the soul of an artist is manifested through his art, then you must take tremendous pleasure in discovering a work that sends shivers down your spine. At that moment, you know that you met a soul mate. I also believe that the environment imprints itself on the soul, for all of us, through our memories. While most people share such memories only verbally, visual artists make the effort to share them through their artwork. The initial impression—a type of environmental imprint, which doesn’t even have to be a conscious act—is processed and implemented throughout the course of art-making into a visual form.
One could speak of memory as a matrix, as a carrier of information and continuity. Such a concept may seem rather removed from the discourse on printmaking, particularly since it doesn’t necessarily connect to the creation of a (fine art) print. However, considering the idea of memory as a matrix may influence our opinions about the precarious situation of printmaking and the print, directing us to perceive the medium as autonomous yet omnipresent, on the edge between art and popular culture, entangled within its own ambivalent definition.
I would like to invite you to explore the essay by Dorota Folga-Januszewska, who brings into our discourse printmaking as a phenomenon of thinking, with the matrix and its potential image as the beginning of all things. We also present in this issue the work of three seasoned artists, Zdenka Golob, Jiri Lindovsky and Joanna Piech-Kalarus. All three of them settled comfortably in printmaking—Golob in intaglio, Lindovsky in screen print and Piech-Kalarus in linocut. None of these artists have experimented extensively with or within the medium; they don’t question the matrix or the relevance of print. Nevertheless, they find enough interest in printmaking to entrust it with their visions. Breda Skrjanec returns for this issue with a comprehensive article about the work of Zdenka Golob. Her lifelong search for the right forms led to a journey throughout the landscapes of former Yugoslavia, only to arrive in a destination where she was fully focused on human figures and relationships. Barbora Kundracikova also examines the visual form for her review of linocut portraits by Joanna Piech-Kalarus, delving into its relationship to content in contemporary prints that evoke the modernist notion of universality.
I traveled to Olomouc in the Czech Republic to meet with Jiri Lindovsky, whose intriguing choice of a theme, technical devices and apparatus, surprisingly translates in his prints and drawings into mysterious entities that reveal the artist’s philosophical engagement with the complexities of the universe. In order to offer insight into the practice of printmaking, we invited Ewa Budka to present her recent project in which she adapted the traditional lithographic process to a playful and expressive method of printing with wood. Her experimentation proves the medium’s versatility, openness to change and potential for interdisciplinary crossover.
Whether you adjust your views on contemporary printmaking or continue supporting its traditional practice, this installation shows that their practical coexistence can stir engaging discussions that enrich the medium’s understanding for the makers as well as the viewers.
Finally, we have introduced minor changes to the format of the Celebrating Print Magazine's print edition in order to accommodate a new font family Clara that Czech typographer Rostislav Vanek granted us. We hope it will make your reading more enjoyable.
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