Page 129 - The 70s - ABC of the material

There is a moment in life on which you This was the beginning of a productive
acknowledge that it belongs to you as your two
legs belong to you and this worked enormously
liberating, then you have a large area and
possibilities in front of you.
Maria van Elk, February 22th, 1980
page 90 - above
Rento Brattinga: Maria van Elk –
lithography and wood print
Claes Oldenburg was in the process of making
a lithograph in my print shop, Steendrukkerij
Amsterdam. It was in 1980 approximately.
Claes had drawn a nail on the lithograph stone;
Bragues Nail.
But this is about Maria. The bridge came into
being by the wife of Claes Oldenburg, Coosje
van Bruggen, also a friend of Maria van Elk.
Claes told Maria about a patient printer on the
Lauriergracht. And because of that Maria rang
our doorbell.
Maria had a fantastic idea. She wanted to make
a circular drawing on a lithograph stone, break
the stone in pieces and print it. She couldn’t
know then that the subject of a broken stone is
a tricky subject for a lithographer. As fantastic
as her idea was, so little enthusiastic I was to
realise it.
Conceivably a different viewpoint will appear
when the artist is willing to discuss the concept.
Luckily Maria van Elk and I do not have
difficulties bouncing ideas back and forth.
This way the idea arose to make a circular
drawing on the stone and wrinkle the thin paper
to be printed and only then print it. While de-
creasing the wrinkles afterwards a “broken “
circle could be discerned. Too Much Pressure
is a fitting title prompted by the moaning of the
press.
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collaboration that was coupled with a lot of
mutual appreciation and a cautious friendship.
The unorthodox approach of printing on abused
or not abused paper at the same time is also
a shift from the traditional two-dimensional
condition, front and back side of the sheet, to a
three-dimensional one. The sheet gets depth!!
Three-dimensional are also two wood prints,
Cross-cut Wood and Length-cut Wood (1986).
Especially Cross-cut Wood was a challenge for
me as a printer.
Visualise a slice of a tree approximately 9 cm
thick and 60 cm in diameter. This slice is cut from
a trunk with a chain saw where the lumber jack
was indifferent as to the surface to be printed.
The slice was not equally thick everywhere and
there were many traces of the saw.
But still, after treatment with sanding paper and
manually inking and printing of the slice in four
different printings and colours something did
appear. After a follow-up treatment of Maria and
hanging it on a nail in which gravity determines
the position, it has become a timeless piece of
art.
Slowly a whole oeuvre of prints came into being
with which we made wonderful and successful
exhibitions in the gallery associated with the print
shop. On the Lauriergracht many prints of many
artist were printed . Every print has its own story.
Maybe then again Lithograph (1980) a thick sheet
of Fabriano paper that again under protest of
the press is printed black in a lengthwise folded
condition. This sheet is hanged folded where the
seam or crack shows an exiting line of light in the
black plane.
It was a great pleasure to work at the press with
Maria van Elk.
Of course as a printer I am asked: “Rento, what
is the most beautiful print you have made in
these forty years”. I am cautious with my answer.
But I can entrust you that the works of Maria van
Elk belong to my favourites.
Rento Brattinga, Steendrukkerij Amsterdam, 2020