FOGG CARVES OUT NICHE FOR ETCHERS

Etchings by James Whistler, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, Jasper Johns, as well as other less well-known artists, are currently on display at the Fogg Museum in the special exhibition "Etching and Etchers Since 1850." The show highlights etchings done since etching became a rare artistic medium--that is, since the invention of photography and less expensive print processes allowed for mass-production of illustrations and rendered etching an inefficient process.

Through the "Etching Revival," etching became a specialized medium, emphasizing the hand of the artist in the process, the value of the limited edition print, and the overall personal effect of the method in comparison to professional printing. The exhibit itself was organized by the Harvard students of Marjorie B. Cohn's Fine Arts Department seminar on the history of etching, which was given in the spring of 1995. The exhibit serves as an instructional experience which provides an introduction to etching. The students selected from the works of individual artists within the Fogg's collection, prepared the exhibit, and wrote the label texts, addressing etching and its tools, its artistic merits, and its limitations.

The show displays both the medium's instruments--etching needle, drypoint needle, copper plate--and demonstrates the distinction between etching and other printmaking processes. In three sixteenth-century works by Albrecht Durer, the differences between etching, engraving and woodcut printmaking are evident. The woodcut is cruder, with broad areas of black and white, and the well-defined line necessarily supercedes tone and mood.

The etching "Rape of a Young Woman" has more uniform hatching lines and intense detail, while the remarkable and dark engraving "A Knight, Death and the Devil" contains more varied and subtle tones. The etching falls between the dramatically expressive and provocative engraving and the folk art-like crudity of the woodcut.

The heightened and almost anal-retentive detail of earlier etchings soon expands to include looser, more casually rendered portraits (such as the mid-eighteenth century "Preste de la Loy") and quick political caricatures (such as those of eighteenth-century Britain). The medium is particularly effective on the larger scale for which this specific printmaking process allows. In Giovanni Piranesi's eighteenth-century "Arch of Ianus Quadrifons," the sheer size and weight of the severe values combine with intense detail, resulting in a piece of surprising presence.

For those who do not find the evolution of etching gripping, this exhibit is still worthwhile for the works included by prominent contemporary artists not known for their printmaking. The three pieces by painter Edward Hopper reveal an artist gaining confidence in his peculiar vision. His paintings at first unrecognized, Hopper turned to etching, producing 60 works before 1928, several of which received acclaim.

This public approval prompted Hopper to return to painting in the 1920s. According to the exhibition text, Hopper declared, "After I took up etching, my painting seemed to crystallize." And his etchings make perfect sense within the development of his work: by using the whitest paper and darkest ink available, he achieves a high contrast which evokes the stark, lonely quality of his paintings. The subject matter and mood anticipate those of his more renowned work: American streets and window scenes in which the human figures seem merely part of the still and vastly solitary environment.

Six of Picasso's early prints are on display, out of the 2500 he produced during his life-time. The ease with which Picasso crosses media is evident in these drypoint and line-etching pieces. "The Watering-Place" (1905) is a small, lyrical piece, with its hyper-sparse and beautifully interwoven lines. The bold, thick black lines of "Goat Skull on Table" (1952) appear as if carved into a weighty physical object.

There are also four pieces by the painter Jasper Johns, dealing with angular shapes and a broad expanse of gray. Johns, who began printmaking in 1960, uses the process not to create new works, but to repeat and rework images from his paintings.

Also remarkable are the senuous forms of Anders Zorn's ninteenth-century nudes and his well-rendered, impressionistic "Omnibus," with hatching strokes powerfully suggesting the jostled weight of human bodies. A tight, involved etching by contemporary artist David Schorr and a striking and politically charged work in an intense blue aquatint by Douglas Dowd are similarly unexpected highlights of the exhibit. These works show the range of etching as a medium of both great precision and, at times, emotional impact.