This exhibition exploring the human figure in Luxembourgish printmaking is the result of a collaboration between the National Museum of History and Art, the National Library of Luxembourg (BnL), and Luxembourg’s most renowned engraving workshop: Empreinte. With a selection of more than 170 works, presented in two different venues (MNHA / BnL), the exhibition highlights the richness of the graphic production in our country from 1945 to the present day. The medium and its variety of artistic expression are demonstrated through five themes: Portraits, Abstraction, Nudes (MNHA, Wiltheim wing), Bodies in action, and Man’s place in society (at the BNL - until 18 April).
- Free
The selection of works from the MNHA’s collection, the BnL’s large Cabinet of Prints’ collection, Empreinte, and other renowned contemporary artists span the eras of modern and contemporary art. The range of techniques is wide: relief techniques (woodcut, linocut), intaglio (copperplate engraving, etching, aquatint, softground, etc.), lithography, silkscreen, and even new contemporary techniques.
Anneke Walch, Blue Print: Vessel 1/3, xylographie sur papier calque, 2016, coll. MNHA
Jean LEYDER, Hommage à Rainer Brambach, linogravure, 1984, coll. MNHA
This major exhibition displays 84 artists of Luxembourgish origin or currently living and working in Luxembourg as printmakers, some of whom were or are significant figures for the Grand Duchy’s art history. With its growing role in contemporary art, thanks to the possibilities offered by new technologies, printmaking exceeds the status of a marginalized art form and is acclaimed at its fair value.
Figure in Print is part of a series of exhibitions shown at the National Museum of History and Art: Gravures contemporaines. Collection du Musée national d’histoire et d’art (1991); Graphik als Spiegel der Malerei. Meisterwerke der Reproduktionsgraphik 1500-1830 (2009); and Schätze der Kamigata. Japanische Farbholzschnitte aus Osaka 1780- 1880 (2013/2014). It allows the public to discover this very technical form of art, often unrecognized and wrongly associated with reproduction, while the world of contemporary art puts it more and more in the spotlight.
As part of the exhibition, the National Museum of History and Art and the National Library present an education program with artist workshops,
thematic tours, and a series of conferences offering art lovers and
amateurs the opportunity to acquaint themselves with a variety of
aspects of printmaking today. The bilingual catalog
(French / German), published by the MNHA and the BnL, contains three
introductory expert essays, a glossary, as well as information on the
works in the exhibition. It is available in the museum shop, on the
online sales platform www.mnha-shop.lu, at the reception of the BnL as
well as in bookstores.
An exhibition in two locations:
- 22nd January to 27th June 2021 at the MNHA
Musée national d'histoire et d'art Luxembourg
Marché-aux-Poissons
L-2345 Luxembourg
(- 28th January to 18th April 2021 at the National Library of Luxembourg)
