Exhibit of block prints from old world masters in Topeka
12 a.m. Thursday, November 15, 2007
We generally think of prints as reproductions of an original, but not the ones in the at the Sabatini Gallery at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.
The 400-year-old prints were forged by the artist's hands. Rembrandt Van Rijn and Albrecht Dürer carved hundreds of tiny lines into woodblocks or metal plates, laid them to ink, then paper, finally revealing masterful works of art.
Albrecht Durer's "Adam and Eve"
"He's kind of really playing with this new medium. Printmaking, prints, the printed page is new during the 1400s. So he's experimenting with this new medium, creating wonderful wood blocks and engravings," Zan said.
Rembrandt comes along about 150 years later, also inspired by religion and the works of Dürer. Rembrandt owned many of Dürer's prints.
Dürer & Rembrandt
The Inspired Line: Selected Prints of Albrecht Dürer & Rembrandt van Rijn from the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art is on exhibit November 16, 2007 through January 7, 2008 at the Sabatini Gallery in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 S.W. 10th Avenue, Topeka. For more information, call the Library at (785) 580-4515 or go online to their Web site, www.tscpl.org.
An opening reception for the exhibit will be held Friday, November 16, from 6:00 until 8:45 p.m. at the Library.
"So Rembrandt is taking what Dürer kind of started off with, taking his techniques and his concepts and just even going farther, kind of expanding upon what Dürer started off doing," Zan said.
The difference in the artists comes in part from the times in which they lived.
Zan Popp, curator for the Sabatini Gallery, said Dürer was inspired by religious and biblical themes as well as a new medium.
Dürer's works are more structured, as in his woodcut of Death of the Virgin, very graphic lines, lots of detail and depth, as if he's capturing a story with one shot, similar to photography.
With Rembrandt, the art world is opening up, becoming softer. In his Death of the Virgin Rembrandt has ethereal lines, very light and loose, more 'real' as if you are looking in on a private moment.
Zan said whether you're religious or not, these works of art represent a link or line of inspiration that is still felt today.
"And the images that you're seeing done by these two particular artists are capturing stories that we all might have read or heard. But they're putting it in a beautiful, pictorial mode. They can pull you in and tell a story and give you some emotional jolt that you might not have otherwise," Zan said.
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