The woodcuts of Christiane Baumgartner

Abstract

Christiane Baumgartner (born in Leipzig, 1967) developed over the years a particular approach to woodcut, based on video and photos. Most of them she took herself, but in some instances she also based her work on found images. She reworks her digital base and creates a pattern of mostly horizontal lines. However, over the years the treatment of these lines changes, her understanding of movement, space, structure or even moirée changes and puts the question of perception in the centre of her artistic preoccupation. Images were no more only an accumulation of articulated horizontal lines, very similar to effects known from older television screens, but gain new qualities and a much wider variation which questions the spectators' perception. These technical issues are increasingly combined with additional layers of comprehension, and this can be either historical events or their connotation, understanding of land- or cityscapes, or movement in every possible way.

Keywords:

• woodcut
• video
• printmaking
• digital art
• movement
• space
• structure
• pattern
• line

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Christian Rümelin studied History of Art, History of Architecture and Modern History at Tübingen and Berne before becoming one of the editors of the Catalogue raisonné Paul Klee (published from 1998 to 2004 in nine volumes). From 2002 he was Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in charge of the European print collection as well as twentieth-century paintings, sculptures and drawings. Since 2008 he has been Keeper of prints and drawings at the Musées d'art et d'histoire in Geneva, one of the most outstanding collections of the post-Second World War prints produced. He has published extensively on various aspects of printmaking, both old masters and contemporary. He is the author of the latest publication concerning Christiane Baumgartner, which includes the complete catalogue of her prints up to 2013. Christian is on the editorial board of Print Quarterly.

Notes

1. As a general overview concerning woodcut in Germany after 1945, see: In Holz geschnitten – Dürer, Gaugin, Penck und die anderen. Edited by Hans Günter Golinski (Cologne: Wienand, 2001), catalogue of an exhibition at the Museum Bochum, Bochum, 11 July through 30 September 2001 – Stege, Grate, Inseln – Holzschnitte von Edward Munch bis heute. Edited by Nils Ohlsen and Katharina Henkel (Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2008), catalogue of an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Emden, 20 September through 30 November 2008 – Colekt I and II – Drucke vom Holz 1897–2004. Privatsammlung Peter Kemna, Hamburg, edited by Peter Kemna, two vols. (Dresden: Sandstein 1998 and 2005).

2. For the most recent overview see: Christiane Baumgartner – White noise. Edited by Christian Rümelin (Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2014), catalogue of an exhibition at the Centre de la gravure et de l'image imprimée de la Fédération Wallonnie-Bruxelles, La Louvière (8 February through 11 May 2014), the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 18 September 2014 through 8 February 2015 and the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 30 March through 28 June 2015.

3. See for example the relatively early remarks in: Christiane Baumgartner. Edited by Nigel Prince (Birmingham: Ikon Gallery, 2005), exhibition catalogue at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 27 June through 18 September 2005; Lewison 2007; Kettner 2007; and more recent: Coldwell 2011, unpaginated.

4. Only rarely these other techniques were taken into account in the literature, see for example Jeannette Stoschek, Visualising time, in: Christiane Baumgartner (2005), 21–26, in particular 23; Lewison 2007, op.cit, 34–35, 45; Thomas Oberender, “Im Innern der Systeme'. Spuren der Romantik in den Holzschnitten von Christiane Baumgartner”, In Christiane Baumgartner – Out of the Blue. Edited by Johan Deumens, 2–9, (Haarlem, Johan Demesne Gallery, 2010), catalogue of an exhibition at the archiv massiv, Leipzig, 1 May through 30 June 2010 and Christian Rümelin, “Grauzonen und Wendepunkte: neue Tendenzen im Werk von Christiane Baumgartner”, In Schnitte ins Herz und in die Augen/Cuts into the Heart and Eyes. Edited by Anna Wesle, 6–11 in particular 7–9 and 11 (Burgdorf: Museum franz gertsch, 2011), catalogue of an at the museum franz gertsch, Burgdorf, 26 March through 11 September 2011.

5. On this topic see latest: Garrett Stewart (2014/2015), in particular 117–121.