Showing in April at Davidson Galleries
April 2010 Exhibitions
First Thursday opening reception: April 1, 6-8pm.
Through May 1
Erik Desmazières
Onze Estampes: Haute Galerie Circulaire.
Etching and aquatint, 1998.
Edition of 60. F.F. 162. 14 x 10 inches.
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.
Philippe Mohlitz
Soulèvement Soudain Et Puissant Des Eaux De Mer.
Engraving, 1971. 8 x 6-1/2 inches.
Philippe Mohlitz’s (French, b. 1941) provocative themes and powerful imagery, rendered by masterful draftsmanship and engraving technique include the fantastic, the archaic, and the macabre. Mohlitz, using extremely fine, fluid engraving lines creates worlds filled with obscure details. Artistic influences include Odilon Redon and Rodolphe Bresdin. Mohlitz’s work can be found in private and public collections in Europe, the U.S. and Japan, including the Biblioteque Nationale de France in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the New York Public Library and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Selections from the Estate of Wallace Engstrom (1924-2009)
Engstrom Estate Part I: Selected Contemporary Paintings & Works on Paper
The April exhibition will feature the contemporary paintings and works on paper portion of the Estate.
In May, look for Part II: Antique Paintings and Works on Paper, a catalog and website exhibition.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Wallace Engstrom (1924-2009) made regular visits to a number of Seattle art galleries in the company of the private art dealer Louie Congdon. The collection Mr. Engstrom built was extremely eclectic and ranged from old master woodcuts and engravings to antique maps and views, regionalist prints (Northwest and national), paintings and drawings from the 1930s and 1940s, and contemporary regional painters such as Marion Peck and Susan Bennerstrom.
