Published on the occasion of the exhibition ALLAN MITELMAN Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow held at Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne 17 March – 28 April 2012 ISBN 978-0-9871923-1-8 Published by Australian Print Workshop Inc, Melbourne, Australia, 2012 First printed in an edition of 750 © Australian Print Workshop Incorporated and the Artist, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical (including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval systems), without permission in writing from the publisher.
Allan Mitelman Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow
12
Australian Print Workshop 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 PO Box 1236, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Telephone 03 9419 5466 auspw@bigpond.com www.australianprintworkshop.com Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm Australian Print Workshop gratefully acknowledges the generous support of The Collie Print Trust which is managed by ANZ Trustees and the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.
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1
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Allan Mitelman’s art has long tantalized both the viewer and the writer alike. This suite of twelve etchings, quintessentially Mitelman, is no exception. All are entirely abstract rectangles of inscrutable and exquisite appearance, palimpsests that evoke a myriad of things: much-used blackboards; traces in sand; eroded terrains; dark infinities of galaxies; immanence made manifest. All Untitled, these etchings construct a universe as resistant to language as is the experience of music.
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Their very resistance to naming provokes speculation of a more philosophical nature – as though Mitelman’s refusal of mimesis might propose the Ancients’ idea of cosmos before it was shaped by divine decree. Equally, these intense, elusive works might be perceived as projecting the contradictory desires for both oblivion and presence. Though the artist would probably be shy of such a proposal, it seems his works propose both the palpable, immediate sensuality of art and its mysterious capacity to invite meaning. His art is an invitation to slow contemplation, to lookingas-discovery. The experience of looking, of imaginative and sensual engagement is essentially private – and as interior as is the process of making for the artist.
3
Meaning is something the viewer attributes or brings to works of art. It is constructed out of our own experience and mediated by a complex repertoire of both visible clues and subtle cultural
4
9
10
conventions. In the absence of discernable likenesses to either the visible world or our socially mediated signs and symbols, we must seek meanings deeper in the layers of our experience. Amidst the plethora of fine lines, of elusive dots and nuanced layering, the attentive eye can enter stealthily, tentatively – as though into a secret garden, or perhaps a labyrinth of sorts – into a private world, as much one’s own as the artist’s. Notice how Mitelman invariably interposes a quiet geometry into or against the infinity and apparent formlessness. Infinity contained, perhaps? Or, in T. S. Eliot’s much quoted words from Four Quartets, “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.” Paradoxically, both stillness and perpetual motion reside in the experience of looking at these enigmatic images. Mitelman quotes Chagall’s advice “ I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment” – and is inclined to add the rejoinder, “Printmaking is so forgiving”. Maybe. But the truth is that the marvellous alchemy of etched, bitten, inked and printed line has long been a playground in which Mitelman has been at ease and from which delight he has created an entire universe.
Image details All works are untitled and were drawn on the plates by the Artist and printed in editions of 15, plus proofs by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne 2011. 1 – 4 Image size: 27 x 20 cm Paper size: 38 x 28.5 cm 5 – 12 Image size: 20 x 27 cm Paper size: 28.5 x 38 cm 1 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate 2
Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
3
Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint with chine-collé printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
4
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
5
Hard ground etching and dry point with chine-collé printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
6
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
7
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
8
Hard ground etching, lift ground and open bite with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
9
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
10 Hard ground etching and crayon resist printed in 2 colours from two copper plates 11 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
Elizabeth Cross
12 Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
Published on the occasion of the exhibition ALLAN MITELMAN Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow held at Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne 17 March – 28 April 2012 ISBN 978-0-9871923-1-8 Published by Australian Print Workshop Inc, Melbourne, Australia, 2012 First printed in an edition of 750 © Australian Print Workshop Incorporated and the Artist, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical (including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval systems), without permission in writing from the publisher.
Allan Mitelman Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow
12
Australian Print Workshop 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 PO Box 1236, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Telephone 03 9419 5466 auspw@bigpond.com www.australianprintworkshop.com Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm Australian Print Workshop gratefully acknowledges the generous support of The Collie Print Trust which is managed by ANZ Trustees and the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.
11 5
1
6
Allan Mitelman’s art has long tantalized both the viewer and the writer alike. This suite of twelve etchings, quintessentially Mitelman, is no exception. All are entirely abstract rectangles of inscrutable and exquisite appearance, palimpsests that evoke a myriad of things: much-used blackboards; traces in sand; eroded terrains; dark infinities of galaxies; immanence made manifest. All Untitled, these etchings construct a universe as resistant to language as is the experience of music.
2
7
8
Their very resistance to naming provokes speculation of a more philosophical nature – as though Mitelman’s refusal of mimesis might propose the Ancients’ idea of cosmos before it was shaped by divine decree. Equally, these intense, elusive works might be perceived as projecting the contradictory desires for both oblivion and presence. Though the artist would probably be shy of such a proposal, it seems his works propose both the palpable, immediate sensuality of art and its mysterious capacity to invite meaning. His art is an invitation to slow contemplation, to lookingas-discovery. The experience of looking, of imaginative and sensual engagement is essentially private – and as interior as is the process of making for the artist.
3
Meaning is something the viewer attributes or brings to works of art. It is constructed out of our own experience and mediated by a complex repertoire of both visible clues and subtle cultural
4
9
10
conventions. In the absence of discernable likenesses to either the visible world or our socially mediated signs and symbols, we must seek meanings deeper in the layers of our experience. Amidst the plethora of fine lines, of elusive dots and nuanced layering, the attentive eye can enter stealthily, tentatively – as though into a secret garden, or perhaps a labyrinth of sorts – into a private world, as much one’s own as the artist’s. Notice how Mitelman invariably interposes a quiet geometry into or against the infinity and apparent formlessness. Infinity contained, perhaps? Or, in T. S. Eliot’s much quoted words from Four Quartets, “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.” Paradoxically, both stillness and perpetual motion reside in the experience of looking at these enigmatic images. Mitelman quotes Chagall’s advice “ I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment” – and is inclined to add the rejoinder, “Printmaking is so forgiving”. Maybe. But the truth is that the marvellous alchemy of etched, bitten, inked and printed line has long been a playground in which Mitelman has been at ease and from which delight he has created an entire universe.
Image details All works are untitled and were drawn on the plates by the Artist and printed in editions of 15, plus proofs by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne 2011. 1 – 4 Image size: 27 x 20 cm Paper size: 38 x 28.5 cm 5 – 12 Image size: 20 x 27 cm Paper size: 28.5 x 38 cm 1 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate 2
Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
3
Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint with chine-collé printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
4
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
5
Hard ground etching and dry point with chine-collé printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
6
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
7
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
8
Hard ground etching, lift ground and open bite with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
9
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
10 Hard ground etching and crayon resist printed in 2 colours from two copper plates 11 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
Elizabeth Cross
12 Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
11 5
1
6
Allan Mitelman’s art has long tantalized both the viewer and the writer alike. This suite of twelve etchings, quintessentially Mitelman, is no exception. All are entirely abstract rectangles of inscrutable and exquisite appearance, palimpsests that evoke a myriad of things: much-used blackboards; traces in sand; eroded terrains; dark infinities of galaxies; immanence made manifest. All Untitled, these etchings construct a universe as resistant to language as is the experience of music.
2
7
8
Their very resistance to naming provokes speculation of a more philosophical nature – as though Mitelman’s refusal of mimesis might propose the Ancients’ idea of cosmos before it was shaped by divine decree. Equally, these intense, elusive works might be perceived as projecting the contradictory desires for both oblivion and presence. Though the artist would probably be shy of such a proposal, it seems his works propose both the palpable, immediate sensuality of art and its mysterious capacity to invite meaning. His art is an invitation to slow contemplation, to lookingas-discovery. The experience of looking, of imaginative and sensual engagement is essentially private – and as interior as is the process of making for the artist.
3
Meaning is something the viewer attributes or brings to works of art. It is constructed out of our own experience and mediated by a complex repertoire of both visible clues and subtle cultural
4
9
10
conventions. In the absence of discernable likenesses to either the visible world or our socially mediated signs and symbols, we must seek meanings deeper in the layers of our experience. Amidst the plethora of fine lines, of elusive dots and nuanced layering, the attentive eye can enter stealthily, tentatively – as though into a secret garden, or perhaps a labyrinth of sorts – into a private world, as much one’s own as the artist’s. Notice how Mitelman invariably interposes a quiet geometry into or against the infinity and apparent formlessness. Infinity contained, perhaps? Or, in T. S. Eliot’s much quoted words from Four Quartets, “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.” Paradoxically, both stillness and perpetual motion reside in the experience of looking at these enigmatic images. Mitelman quotes Chagall’s advice “ I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment” – and is inclined to add the rejoinder, “Printmaking is so forgiving”. Maybe. But the truth is that the marvellous alchemy of etched, bitten, inked and printed line has long been a playground in which Mitelman has been at ease and from which delight he has created an entire universe.
Image details All works are untitled and were drawn on the plates by the Artist and printed in editions of 15, plus proofs by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne 2011. 1 – 4 Image size: 27 x 20 cm Paper size: 38 x 28.5 cm 5 – 12 Image size: 20 x 27 cm Paper size: 28.5 x 38 cm 1 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate 2
Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
3
Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint with chine-collé printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
4
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
5
Hard ground etching and dry point with chine-collé printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
6
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
7
Hard ground etching, lift ground and aquatint printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
8
Hard ground etching, lift ground and open bite with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
9
Hard ground etching printed in 2 colours from two copper plates
10 Hard ground etching and crayon resist printed in 2 colours from two copper plates 11 Hard ground etching with chine-collé printed in 1 colour from one copper plate
Elizabeth Cross
12 Hard ground etching, crayon resist and aquatint printed in 3 colours from three copper plates
Published on the occasion of the exhibition ALLAN MITELMAN Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow held at Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne 17 March – 28 April 2012 ISBN 978-0-9871923-1-8 Published by Australian Print Workshop Inc, Melbourne, Australia, 2012 First printed in an edition of 750 © Australian Print Workshop Incorporated and the Artist, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical (including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval systems), without permission in writing from the publisher.
Allan Mitelman Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow
12
Australian Print Workshop 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 PO Box 1236, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Telephone 03 9419 5466 auspw@bigpond.com www.australianprintworkshop.com Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm Australian Print Workshop gratefully acknowledges the generous support of The Collie Print Trust which is managed by ANZ Trustees and the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.