The Herald, Thursday December 10, 1998
Raw, vivid, violent. The result of the collaboration between artist and writer is splendid.
Book Description
The Artist in his World presents a selection of more than a decade's work by Ian McCulloch in the medium of print. Typical of his approach to his art, many prints derive from classical themes. Yet they strike a chord in the modern word.
And in an unusual cooperation across artistic boundaries, in his own inimitable style, artist and author Alasdair Gray has produced Eight Poems Written from 2 to 5 August 1998 on Eight Series of Prints by Ian McCulloch.
Both Ian McCulloch and Alasdair Gray view art as having a role to play in contributing to an understanding about the nature of our lives. The content of this book is an example of such artistic endeavour.
And in an unusual cooperation across artistic boundaries, in his own inimitable style, artist and author Alasdair Gray has produced Eight Poems Written from 2 to 5 August 1998 on Eight Series of Prints by Ian McCulloch.
Both Ian McCulloch and Alasdair Gray view art as having a role to play in contributing to an understanding about the nature of our lives. The content of this book is an example of such artistic endeavour.
About the Author
Ian McCulloch has exhibited his paintings and prints widely and has work in public and private collections. He was the winner of the Stirling Smith Biennial in 1985 and of the competition to paint murals for Glasgow's new Royal Concert Hall in 1990. He is currently Fine Art Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Alasdair Gray is a visual artist and writer. Beginning with the highly acclaimed allegorical novel Lanark in 1981, he has published numerous books, including fiction, other prose and poetry.
Alasdair Gray is a visual artist and writer. Beginning with the highly acclaimed allegorical novel Lanark in 1981, he has published numerous books, including fiction, other prose and poetry.
Excerpted from The Artist in His World: Prints, 1986-97 by Ian McCulloch, Alasdair Gray. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
(from the introduction) In these black and white woodcuts, which form by far the most important part of Ian McCulloch's graphic output, the images are vigorously cut with eloquence and elegance into a surprising variety of materials. Standard sheets of pristine new plywood have been used to give a neutral ground on which the artist's full repertoire of cut marks can be orchestrated; skips in the area of McCulloch's Glasgow city centre studio have yielded table tops, ceiling panels, shuttering boards and even sheets of laminate with artificial woodgrain, each having its own history implicit in its surface and shape. Driftwood is gathered from many beach-combing trips on the Island of Bute, giving a more weathered, natural ground for cutting. Each of these surfaces will take ink differently and each tool will make its own mark.
It is, however, the artist's mastery of these tools in the service of his unique vision which gives these prints their real quality. Here is seen the present-day result of the history of a medium developed in Europe over the last five hundred years: the black line drawing perfected by the German Formschneiders of the mid sixteenth century, coupled with Thomas Bewick's radical innovations in white line engraving using the white cut marks of the individual tools to render highlights and replicate textures; Gauguin's refined primitivism which involved subtle alterations of the printing block by reducing the ink-holding surface through scratching and abrading while also softening the whites by printing from the toolmarks in the lowered surface of the block.
McCulloch's prints show an inherent violence and conflict seen through mythic characters, Christian and Classical. There is evidence of struggle but on closer analysis this is not overtly espressionistic - these works are carefully organised and painstakingly planned: the obsessive working of an almost endless series of blocks in which his personal pantheon of heroes and heroines are continually reinvestigated and presented in ever more extreme forms.
It is, however, the artist's mastery of these tools in the service of his unique vision which gives these prints their real quality. Here is seen the present-day result of the history of a medium developed in Europe over the last five hundred years: the black line drawing perfected by the German Formschneiders of the mid sixteenth century, coupled with Thomas Bewick's radical innovations in white line engraving using the white cut marks of the individual tools to render highlights and replicate textures; Gauguin's refined primitivism which involved subtle alterations of the printing block by reducing the ink-holding surface through scratching and abrading while also softening the whites by printing from the toolmarks in the lowered surface of the block.
McCulloch's prints show an inherent violence and conflict seen through mythic characters, Christian and Classical. There is evidence of struggle but on closer analysis this is not overtly espressionistic - these works are carefully organised and painstakingly planned: the obsessive working of an almost endless series of blocks in which his personal pantheon of heroes and heroines are continually reinvestigated and presented in ever more extreme forms.
