Guntars Sietins

Origami (Origami is the art of paper folding)

2003

The Oliver which is in several museum collections and has won numerous awards) is being used to promote the show, Printed Ladies, opening March 1st at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and will be reproduced on the cover of the upcoming revised second edition of Carol's book, The Mezzotint: History and Technique which is due out in early 2024 Thomas Oliver invented the first double-sided lateral top stroke machine. This was No. 9 introduced in 1916. With light focused on the machine it suggested the logo of the Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes series - giving off an anima-like aura. The print was issued in an edition of 75. Carol Wax originally trained to be a classical musician at the Manhattan School of Music but fell in love with printmaking. Soon after she began engraving mezzotints she was asked by the renowned print dealer...

This image is an artist proof and is annotated VIII / VIII The artist's subject matter was enigmatic: a recurring theme was that of anonymous packages tied with knots of rope; sometimes there are prison bars...

Marc Balakjian was enigmatic in his subject matter creating images that are disturbing in their ambiguity. Is this image just striped fabric tied with ropes on a platform or is this is a flag-draped coffin symbolizing those who passed "in memory of an historic phrase"? Politicians may turn the phrase but a price must be paid. This small edition mezzotint was created in 1975 in an edition of only 5. Armenian by descent, Marc Balakjian was raised in Lebanon. He spent his early years in the small town of Rayak, before moving to Beirut at the age of 10. He came to England in 1966, initially to study architecture with a firm in Oxford. He then decided to study art at Hammersmith College of Art and took up a postgraduate degree in printmaking at the Slade School of Art in 1971. After graduating he began working at Studio Prints in 1973, just as it was establishing itself in Queen’s Crescent. By 1976 he had become a full time partner, collaborating with other artists as well as continuing his own work, much of which is inspired by his Armenian and Lebanese culture and heritage. By the 1980s work was falling off, so Balakjian and Studio Prints introduced in-house plate-making to serve painters and sculptors who had little experience with printmaking. Artists such as Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and Ken Kiff...

This image is from an edition of 50. The artist's subject matter was enigmatic: a recurring theme was that of anonymous packages tied with knots of rope; sometimes there are prison bars...

Kazuhisa Honda Sleepless Night, 1981 Color mezzotint on Rives BFK watermarked paper Signed, dated, titled and numbered 18/50 on the front 14 × 19 inches Unframed Accompanied by COA i...

Wonderful and evocative abstracted dry point etching of honey bee drinking water and barbed wire titled "Rebirth" by Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, b. 1947). Presented in new double mat. Unframed. Image size: 8.5"H x 7.5"W Titled "Rebirth" along the bottom edge. Signed and dated "T. Uchida" in the lower right corner. Presented in a new double mat mat with foam core backing. Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, b. 1947) was born in Tsuyama City in the Okayama prefecture in Japan. He graduated from Doshisha University, Kyoto, in 1970, and went on to become the artist-in-residence at the KALA Institute of Prints in Berkeley, CA, in 1989. He then moved to Australia, where he studied under Prof. Jorg Schmeisser...

Wonderful and evocative abstracted dry point etching of the sea, a maddox. random fishing buoys and crab claw titled "Back to the Sea by Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, b. 1947). Presented in new custom cut mat. Unframed. Image size: 9"H x 15"W Titled "Back to the Sea" along the bottom edge. Signed and dated "T. Uchida '89" in the lower right corner. Presented in a new custom-cut mat with foam core backing. Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, b. 1947) was born in Tsuyama City in the Okayama prefecture in Japan. He graduated from Doshisha University, Kyoto, in 1970, and went on to become the artist-in-residence at the KALA Institute of Prints in Berkeley, CA, in 1989. He then moved to Australia, where he studied under Prof. Jorg Schmeisser...

Abstracted dry point etching by Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, 20th Century). Two walnuts sit in an abstracted space, with ropes in the background. Titled "II Walnuts" along the bottom edge. Signed and dated "T. Uchida - 89" in the lower right corner. Presented in a new grey mat with foam core backing. Tomoya Uchida (Japanese, b. 1947) was born in Tsuyama City in the Okayama prefecture in Japan. He graduated from Doshisha University, Kyoto, in 1970, and went on to become the artist-in-residence at the KALA Institute of Prints in Berkeley, CA, in 1989. He then moved to Australia, where he studied under Prof. Jorg Schmeisser...