When West meets East

Margaret Rankin
(1956- )

Canadian linocut printer.

When I stumbled over this picture (left) of a print showing "just" a nice pot I immediately was taken in by the great eastern atmosphere. Maybe also because of the red cartouche or printers seal. I know these pots. They are German clayware of the late 1960’s and 70’s. They were manufactured in West Germany. And very of the period. Everybody had them, we had them, we still have them.

I think they are so good I decided showing you all 8 vase prints I found. With Margarets permission.

There is a strong revival going on and these thickly glazed vases, nicknamed Fat Lava, are highly collectible and fashionable once again. Mass produced but handglazed. See for example:
http://www.retrotogo.com/2006/10/fat_lava_german.html. Or just Google Fat Lava pictures.

They have much in common with the centuries old design and mass produced storage (ginger) jars and Chinese and Japanese household ceramics.

I know of only one printer who took ceramics as a characteristic subject of his work. Japanese Haku Maki (1924-2000). His pots and tea ceremony cups printed in a mixed technique using cement/concrete blocks and woodblocks are without equivalent in the print making world.

Maki was one of the 10 chosen artists for James Michener's 1968 book: the Modern Japanese Print. He even had the courage to print "just a rock". And if you don’t know, at first glance you’ld swear it was a photograph. How much more Zen can you get. He made many more prints of fruits and japanese caracters etc.. but they fall outside the purpose of this posting.

I found only one other woodblock relief print of a solitary pot, this lovely little but great Ex-Libris by Tasaburo Takahashi (b.1904 - ) as simple and delicate as the pot itself. There is more proof telling Margaret knew of vases and ceramics Haku Maki.

Above Haku Maki, below Margaret Rankin

Haku Maku can not longer set himself doing a Germany made Fat Lava vase, but what if Margaret decided to do a classic Chinese or Japanese pot or gingerjar ?

She did after all do this great Becky Brown, 1951 pot . My favorite. Or is it the bleu one ?. Or the Polka Dotts ? I think I love them all !

Smaller pictures are mouse-clickable.

Visit Margaret at:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49727105/original-block-print-floor-vase-with
http://www.etsy.com/listing/590574/original-block-print-becky-brown-vase

There is even one or two (the last ones of the very small editions) for sale.

Erna Fenkohl - Herzer (a surprise)

Erna Fenkohl neé Herzer
(1882 Glogow – 1975 Berlin)

Portrait painter and woodcut printer

Once in a while it is great to make a discovery, or rediscovery. I have hesitated keeping this secret to myself. But today I decided sharing (if you promis to keep it our secret by leaving a comment) and present from almost total obscurity the printed works of German printer Erna Fenkohl. I stumbled upon this small website of a German professor showing the works of Gustav Fenkohl (1872-1950), from Memel (now Lithuania). A German landscape painter studying and living in Berlin since 1895 (see the link below).

Gustav Fenkohl married Erna Herzer in 1914, they will have met in the artistic scene in Berlin were Gustav had studied and exhibited his paintings from 1913 on all major exhibitions. Gustav was invested chairman of the Berlin Artists Association and held many other functions until WW II.

In 1943 they were bombed out of Berlin and most of their work was destroyed in the fires. Würzburg Professor Hans-Joachim Vollrath traced many surviving paintings displaying them on his website. Sideways he was send pictures of prints by Gustav’s wife Erna who was listed as a portrait painter in Berlin. I even found another example. The couple returned to Berlin after the war.

It is hard to believe that these wonderful prints are so unknown. The square designs, the colors and the compositions are great. I presume these 6 flower and butterfly prints belonged somehow together. And could easily have been made from the back garden because flowers and butterflies are of the common type. It is hardly possible to compare these very original prints with others but stylish, somewhere in the back of my mind is Edna Boies Hopkins (1872-1937). If she was familiar with the great Hopkins’ work I think she came very far with her art. Just as "Strong and Colorful". If she wasn’t it would be all the more extraordinary. Won’t you agree? And what to think of what has been destroyed in 1943 ?

3 prints by Edna Boies Hopkins:

(This last example by E.B.H. I deformed to a square for comparing)
These 3 pictures taken from the book by Dominique Vasseur

Please let me know what you think of them by leaving a comment. Hopefully more prints have survived and will show-up in time.

Prof. Vollrath's website of Gustav Fenkohl:

http://www.didaktik.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/history/fenkohl/index.html

Book: (still available, a must have):

Edna Boies Hopkins, "Strong in caracter, Colorful in Expression"

Ohio University Press 2007, by Dominique Vasseur.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1769-0

ISBN-10: 0-8214-1769-X

Jan Wittenberg (II)

Jan Hendrik Willem Wittenberg
(1886-1963)

Dutch painter and graphic artist.

II

(Some of his) flower & stillife paintings

My first acqaintance with artist Jan Wittenberg was this painting of red flowers in a blue vase which is still my favourite.

I cannot resist after showing Manet's last flowers and the works of two of his contemporary American disciples Stanley Bielen and Nancy Tips. These 3 posting receiving many visistors to this day. So I guess there is an audience for the flowers and still lifes of Jan Wittenberg too.

It's what I brought together from various galleries and auction houses over time. In no way complete. But Wittenbergs works are very seldomly seen or shown (together).

Pictures are mouse-clickable (left)

Several pictures I borrowed at http://www.simonis-buunk.nl/ , they have a truly great archive on many Dutch artists.

Jan Wittenberg (I)

Jan Hendrik Willem Wittenberg (I)
(1886-1963)
Dutch painter and graphic artist

1) Examples of his graphic work and some paintings in oil of animals.

The reason for presenting Jan Wittenberg was the finding this lovely calf print of a few weeks ago. It must have been (mis)taken for a calender picture because nobody was interested. It isn’t. It is one of the loveliest color lithographs he ever made. The signature and titel in pencil was hidden under an old paper matting.

(oil)

To start with I'll share examples of his print work and some examples of his animal oil paintings. Later will follow his flower still life paintings. I have no pretentions of completeness whatsoever. Just showing you (all) the pictures I know of.

(oils)

I wasn’t predestined for Jan Wittenberg becoming an artist. Let alone such a good one. A bit mystical artist also. Not much of his work ever appearing on the market although he is represented in most Dutch museums. Of course. He is good. And a very delicate kind of art he made.

(oil) (woodblock)

His painting are rarely seen but his graphical work was very fashionable from the twenties until the mid XXth century. Some of them like the Dachshund, the and the Cockatoo are icons of Dutch printed art.

His father put him up with a clerks job but he knew to escape from this life and began a professional career as an artist. He took lessons from renowned Dutch painter Floris Arntzenius (1864-1926) and became even an arts teacher in Rotterdam. Later devoting himself entirely to his painting and printing.

Stylish he is often compared to famous painter and graphics colleague Jan Mankes (1889-1920), whom he knew and whoms graphical work I shall present later.

His paintings are rare, his work never seen together although he was awarded an exhibition in 2004.

Marabou in Artis ZOO (oil)

Next Jan Wittenberg`s flower paintings in oil.

Luise Schnitzler-Wintermeyer

Luise Schnitzler-Wintermeyer
(1894 Wiesbaden – 1971 Königstein)
German painter and woodblock printer.

Combining two passions (woodblock and lino-prints and genealogy) it gives great satisfaction shining some light on what has been a name written in pencil for quite some time.

This nicely colored honeysuckle (German: Geissblatt) impressionistic print signed with just: Orig. Holzschnitt by L.Schnitzler Wintermeyer.

Schnitzler rang a bell but that famous German play writer Arthur wasn’t a lead. I found a villa in Wiesbaden, the Villa Schnitzler, now turned into a communal centre. Writing to them at first did not work. But a second attempt resulted in a recent very nice answer by the City of Wiesbaden Archives’ director Dr. Brigitte Streich who did some research in the City of Wiesbaden's Archives.

Luise Wintermeyer was born in Wiesbaden 29-7-1897. Her father Louis, a farmer by succession and later Wiesbaden city-councillor and “Reichstag” delegate died aged just 41 in Switzerland in 1901. A year later in 1902 the widowed mother Hermine W. ordered the building of the beautiful Villa on the Biebricher Alee 42 in Wiesbaden. Luise married in 1925 principal Hermann Schnitzler (1895–1968) and the couple moved in in 1947 after Luise inherited the Villa. Luise died in 1971 in nearby Königstein. The villa named after the second owner Villa Schnitzler.

In the hall of the villa to this day hangs a portrait by Luise of her husband Hermann.

Possibly someday more examples of Luise's printing (or further facts on her life and art) will come to light.