Manfred Egger — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

May 5

May 5 Manfred Egger

Biography
1960 born in Hall / Austria

2010 Artist in residence – “Guanlan Printmaking Base”, Shenzhen, China
2011 short time guest teacher at Northeast Normal University of Changchun, China
2012 short time guest teacher at Yichun University/ Jiangxi Province, China
2016 Lecture at Bucharest National University of Arts
2017 Austria-coordinator for 6th Ulsan Woodcut Festival
Presentation at “6th Ulsan Woodcut Festival”,
2018 -2021 Austrian Commissioner for Douro Print Biennial
Member of XYLON, Austria and of KIWA (Kyoto Int. Woodprint Association), Japan
Works in possession of:
Tama Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan // Prahova County Art Museum, Ploiesti, Romania // Graver Maintenant, France // Civic collection of the Town of Schio, Italy // Contemporary Engraving Collection Graphium, Timisoara, Romania // IMOGA, Istanbul Museum of Graphic Arts, Istanbul, Turkey // Resim ve Heykel Müzeleri Dernegi, Istanbul, Turkey // Printmaking Museum of Douro, Alijo, Portugal // KIWA Collection (Kyoto Int. Woodprint Association), Kyoto, Japan // Silpakorn UniversityBangkok, , Thailand // Guanlan Original Printmaking Base, Shenzhen, China // Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China // Shanghai Art Museum, China // Yichun University, Jiangxi Province, China // Ino-cho Paper Museum, Kochi, Japan

Artist Statement
At a certain moment in my printmaking career, I developed the impression that
in times of highly sophisticated methods of re-production simply making “copies” can no longer be the main aim of printmaking, in my case woodblock printing. Instead, I started mainly doing originals only (rarely I still do editions); that is to say that I start off with a certain number of blocks, which I then re-work in the course of the printing process. I combine them with each other, I introduce new blocks, thereby change the material used for printing in various ways, and so in the end create series of similar, related but never identical prints. The end product then is the series as such, not an edition of one of the prints of the series. In this way printmaking gains a new dimension: the aim is not a reproduction but the aim is to produce works that cannot be done in any other technique; the fact that the works could be reproduced in a certain number of copies is only secondary (if at all). Originality is more important than edition. In times when everything can be reproduced originality becomes a value of high importance.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

This is difficult to say, but I guess I have always had a liking for art, drawing, painting since I was a child.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

See myself as a printmaker/woodcutter who is trying to widen the language of woodcut.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

My general theme is the complexity of life; all the different shades, and possible perspectives on what life offers.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

I produce single, unique prints (edition of 1), and use the same plates or stencils to create a series of similar but never identical prints. I turn round forms, I mirror them or put them upside down, so that all prints of a series are different, but made up basically of the same patterns.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

Everything is of the same importance: the draft or design, the cutting process, the colouring and the printing process; but of course the moment you put the print out of the printing press is the most tension, interesting moment.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

I have no special projects at the moment, but something I have been following in the last few years is putting together several prints (three, or four) to create one big-sized work.

Website www.manfred-egger.at