Dimensions: image: 748 x 505 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Michael Rothenstein | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This powerful print is titled "Jags," by Michael Rothenstein. Editor: It's striking. The heavy black ink feels almost oppressive, like a cityscape at dusk. Curator: Rothenstein was fascinated by the possibilities of woodblock printing. Look at the rough texture, the visible marks of the tools and the process. Editor: He's not afraid to show the labor. The repetition of the car shapes hints at mass production, consumerism perhaps? And how the black and gold hues affect our viewing experience? Curator: Quite possibly. There's a strong argument that Rothenstein is commenting on postwar British society through the symbolic weight of the automobile. Editor: I leave with a sense of decay, or maybe just an honest appraisal of the machine age. Curator: A fittingly complex legacy, wouldn't you agree?
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Michael Rothenstein was the son of the painter Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945), and brother of Sir John, a former Director of the Tate Gallery. He was one of Britain's leading printmakers. After taking up printmaking in 1948 he subsequently worked in all the main techniques. As 'Jags' demonstrates, one of his innovations was to make relief prints from found wooden objects. Here Rothenstein used a section of wooden crate to print the main body of the image. He set a photograph of a car-transporter 'in the gap between the teeth'. Rothenstein's intention was to make a statement about the 'violently broken wood' and the violence which the car does 'to the countryside'. Gallery label, September 2004
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