The magical world of prints

The print medium is all about transforming the "multiple" into "undisputed originals" many times over. To the uninitiated, this seems to be a double-talk puzzle when confronted with dubious signed "limited editions."

In my experience as the first artist to have a one-man etching show in the Philippines (in 1957 at the Philippine Art Gallery managed by Lyd Arguilla), I saw how hard it was for me to explain this seeming contradiction. It underlined my difficulties before art collectors who had no experience in "original" graphic work. Some even got irritated by me for they thought I was duping them.

By way of an explanation, I told them a fingerprint is always an original, but a photocopy of a fingerprint still bears witness to the original.

With these thoughts in mind, let me say I am honored to mount a one-man print exhibition at the Ayala Museum, which opens on Nov. 15. The works are on view until March 11. Very fine artists have dabbled in this medium: Bencab, Manuel Rodriguez, Dr. Paras-Perez, Virgilio Aviado and Fil Dela Cruz, among others.

My encounter with etching was a "deliberate adventure" after having learned to do murals in veritable fresco at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Going from fresco to etching is a daring feat – like a flying trapeze jump with no net (bahala ka!). I always wanted to explore the other side of the rainbow, to contradict my own certitudes gained through knowledge learned at the easel. I wanted to reach other emotions and sensuality diametrically opposed to the slavish use of the traditional oils.

My senses were stimulated, overwhelmed by this perilous jump into the "brown-acid yonder" of etching where ancient echoes of alchemy and primitive magic formulas made the medium possible. Etching allows me to experiment as much as possible – until I plunge that copper plate into the acid, the magical broth worthy of the Ladies of the Night in Macbeth. With the plate unscathed, unbitten, un-bewitched. The first step is one thing, but the subsequent stages are quite infernal, what with the dark varnish and the reverse-mirror image.

Etching comes from the Danish word etsen and the German word atsen, which mean to corrode by acids, literally "to bite into" and "to eat" because etching functions with the insertion of a copper plate into an acid bath by leaving the unprotected lines or bigger areas for more or less a long time. This depends on the depth of the "bite" to hold on to the ink on the plate, for the intensity of the lines on open areas. The acid dilutes the copper where there is no varnish to protect it.

Etching was supposed to be invented around the 14th century or earlier when Faustian chemists and alchemists tinkered with different elements. The most artistic works were devoted in decorating the armors of knights who wished to die in artistic splendor. Extraordinary works can be seen in the armory collection of the Royal Palace in Madrid and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Dürer was the first great master of engraving, and Rembrandt is the greatest etcher. Other techniques were introduced such as dry point and mezzotint, with the undisputed master of this technique being Goya. Litography came with the invention of the stone litho as support for the image and the ink on a flat surface.

The numbering of the editions is a purely modern addition. If the artist wishes to sell his editions without numbering, he may do so as long as this matter is clearly stated from the very beginning.

I must thank Fernando Zobel infinitely for his conferences during my UP days at the Ateneo concerning etching for they whetted my appetite for many years till I found a place to apply this spark, to set it ablaze into realty at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Fernando was also among the firsts to buy some of my prints at the Philippine Art Gallery.

Coincidentally, my works will be exhibited next to Fernando’s. Would he have thought possible such a linking and bonding after many decades? A brotherhood by the arts, for the artist and on the arts.

* * *

The Ayala Museum presents "Black Bouquet," an exhibition that focuses on an intensely creative period in the early years of Juvenal Sanso’s artistic career, when the Paris-based artist produced an abundance of etchings and lithographs from 1955-1968, at the outbreak of student demonstrations, bringing together over 60 pieces from the collections of the artist and "Zero-in" partners Ateneo Art Gallery and the Lopez Memorial Museum. The works showcase Sanso’s "fine hand for linear detail" yielding gnarled trees, lush vegetation, and desolate landscapes – now recognized images in Philippine modern printmaking. A full-color catalogue and an educational workbook will be available. For information, call Rosan Cruz at 449-2856 or 0917 897-8490, or e-mail rcruz@benpres.com.ph