The presence of the artist’s hand as revealed in the gestural quality of line ” the taper as it enters and leaves the page, its assertiveness — became an important tool for artists who explored abstraction.
Roland Ginzel [b. 1921: Lincoln, Illinois]
color etching and aquatint on paper
21 3/4 by 14 inches
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Ginzel’s early career was defined by printmaking. In 1948, he earned an MFA from the University of Iowa after working closely with printmaker Mauricio Lasansky. In 1953, he and his artist-wife Ellen Lanyon helped found Chicago’s Graphic Art Workshop, along with Arthur Levine, Aaron Roseman, and Janet Ruthenberg. The workshop, dedicated to developing printmaking in Chicago, was destroyed by fire in 1955.
In this untitled work of 1957, Ginzel presents the viewer with analogous color and a series of what appear to be quick, gestural strokes on a mottled ground. Calligraphic in their ability to reveal the movement of the artist’s hand across the surface of the plate, the marks signify nothing more than their own presence and an exuberant approach to a complex technical process.
