KVT – Woodcuts in a Digital Age are Wonderful

(Vietnamese version available)

KVT almost…but not quite….speechless at Goethe

Back after a couple of months in cooler climes and exciting visits to a couple of provoking international art biennales. I decided to lift the veils of ennui that accompanied a return to Hanoi and get out into the local art scene and, as luck would have it, wandered into Goethe and the amazing woodcut prints by German artist in residence, Christiane Baumgartner. What a great antidote….Ennui cured!

She’s a very respectably famous international artist who (and here I paraphrase the PR) has worked for the past ten years making woodcuts based on selected video stills. She varies the width of the lines to obtain images in various shades of grey (nothing to do with that bondage cum self pleasuring novel that is titillating lots of local ladies)

Fabulous work that has recognizable images when viewed from a distance and that take on a delicious abstraction as you get closer.

The prints on show are representative of work done in the past decade and connoisseurs will take care to peruse the catalogues from other exhibitions that accompany this show as well as other pertinent displays

Now the artist is working on representations of landscapes and, while in Hanoi, on water reflections which I definitely want to see.

Enough said about this exhibition which is a MUST SEE and which held me in thrall while I was amidst it, and which stays with me as I type this homage. Excess words are not needed!

The large pieces are amazing and the small series, ‘Sekunde’, indelible

IT’S ALL AMAZING!

The artist is conducting workshops with local artists in locations up and down the country and will (or has given) artist talks

It all ends on the 30th and if you’re into art but haven’t spent time with it then you are very silly (well that’s my opinion anyway!)

Thanks Goethe for another outstanding contribution.