Erik Desmazières

Available Works

Erik Desmazières (French, b. 1948), one of France’s best known contemporary printmakers, shares an affinity to neoclassical aesthetics in both the plurality of imagery and the metaphoric use of subjects to convey his artistic idiom. Imaginative depictions of people and places act like ancient ruins in conjuring up ruminative memories of another era and feed the exoticisim and fascination we find in cultures other than our own. Similar to the antiquarianism of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Desmazieres expresses his veneration in classical magnificence through his detailed rendering of architecture, objects, fragments, ornaments, costume and inscriptions. The subtle shading and incredible detail in each image reveals the artist’s mastery of the etching and aquatint processes. Erik Desmazieres’ work is exhibited internationally and also included in the permanent collection of the metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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