Norwegian Intaglio

August 1 - 13, 2016

On Monday, August 1st at 7pm an exhibition Norwegian Intaglio was opened. The exhibition was opened by his excellency Arne Sannes Bjornstad, Norwegian ambassador in Serbia.

"Norwegian Intaglio" present works by 12 members of the Association of Norwegian Printmakers. It is organized and curated by printmaker Martin Due. The exhibition reflects some of Norwegian printmaking in various intaglio techniques used in the contemporary field of printmaking.
The Association of Norwegian Printmakers was founded in 1919 and is part of the larger organization Norwegian Visual Artists. Currently the organization has 330 members and are continuously working to maintain high quality and professional standards. The Norwegian Printmakers fund is financially supporting the Norwegian Intaglio exhibition project.
So why does one compose an exhibit of intaglio printmaking specifically? Is not the traditional world of etching and engraving already fully explored? There are mainly two reasons for this focus:
First, the intaglio of today is undergoing a great and rapid development in the light of both digital techniques and new materials and possibilities, such as photopolymer and nontoxic printmaking. It is a field of printmaking on the move.
The second reason is that even though different modern techniques such as photopolymer and digital work is nowadays integrated and parallel with traditional techniques such as etching and engraving, intaglio is still most often a process where the relation between the artist and the actual print is very close all the way through the production and printing process. In the end the plates are most often hand printed and the printing craftsmanship itself is defining each prints individual expression. It is a close index of the creating artist's knowledge and mind.
The work selected for this exhibit shows both the great span of intaglio techniques in use today as well as a great variation in theme. The texts in the catalogue are mainly supplied by the participating artist's, in order to give a brief insight in who they are and what they consider important for relating to the works presented in "Norwegian Intaglio".
Martin Due - organizer/curator