Art
Fair Survival Techniques
We have survived another edition of Madrid's ESTAMPA
international print fair. I say "survived" because every
year the sheer logistics of mounting a stand in the fair seem
more formidable: long drives, unholy midnight setup hours, crowds
and queues, diabolical midnight breakdown...
And
in the middle of it all I had a heart attack. At least I thought
I did. I had been feeling a bit off all week, and on the afternoon
of the fourth day it felt a steel band tightening around my chest.
I actually had to leave the fair and go back to the apartment
and lie down. When I arrived my feet were cold so I took my socks
off and soaked them (the feet, not the socks) in hot water in
the bidet. I started to feel better almost immediately.
Then
it struck me. As I had forgotten to pack my own socks, Maureen
had said to me on the first day of the fair, "Here, wear
these hose of mine, they're unisex." So I did. They were
too small, of course, and cut off the circulation to my legs.
Hence the "heart attack." There's a lesson in this for
all of us mature males: If the cholesterol doesn't get you, wearing
your wife's underwear certainly will!
Successful
Fair, Delightful Discovery
In the
end we had a successful fair (see the ESTAMPA
Album 2004) and I had the personal satisfaction of discovering
an extraordinary printmaker, the Guatemalan artist, Juan Yoc.
Finding myself thoroughly sated after trying to absorb a couple
of thousand prints, I ran across this seemingly unprepossessing
little etching in a back corner of the stand of Madrid's Annta
Gallery. After being assaulted by so much "virtuosismo,"
this little print blew me away with its massive dose of wisdom
and wit lurking in subtle understatement. For one of those fleeting,
this-is-all-worth-it-after-all moments it was as if someone had
summed up our entire youth, as if Goya had come back to remind
us what printmaking was about. See if you don't agree:
"Descubrimiento"
by Juan Yoc
A
New Suppliers Section
We have put together a new section
for World Printmakers, a space devoted to suppliers of
printmaking materials worldwide. The Internet has made it feasible
for artists to purchase materials anywhere in the world. Suddenly
all the inks, presses, papers, tools and supplies from the finest
manufacturers around the globe are at your disposal, and World
Printmakers felt the necessity to create the "central
registry" for this phenomenon. If you are a manufacturer
or distributor of printmaking supplies, and think you should be
on this list, please drop
us an email, and well get back to you immediately.
The
Importance of Being Limited
Before signing off I want to remark on a phenomenon which I observed
at ESTAMPA. A woman walked into one of the stands and was immediately
besotted by the prints of one of the artists. What's more, she
presented herself as the producer and presenter of Madrid's only
art-theme radio program. As she was poring over the prints, she
turned and said to the gallery owner, "Why don't the prints
have edition numbers?" Before he could finish explaining
the artist's philosophy of "open editions," unlimited,
unnumbered printings, the woman spun on her heel and walked out
of the stand without saying another word. Limited editions, it
seems, are vitally important to print lovers, at least in Spain
and probably equally so in the rest of Europe.
