Kahlenbergerdorf 1880 - 1928

This little etching of Kahlenbergerdorf by Gottfried Lorenz is a lesson in mark-making. You can see how it comes into being, shifting, emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Lorenz and imagine what it might have been like to create this tiny world. What might he have been thinking? I suppose, how to make the impression of a snowy village nestled below a hill. Look at the surface of the paper, the physicality of the etching. The lines are thin but they have texture and depth that shapes the experience of the composition, the feeling of being in the landscape, in winter. Notice how the marks around the hill create the feeling of light and shade. This piece relates to the wider tradition of landscape printmaking. Artists are always in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. The embodied expression of art embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.