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Touring 1997-98 (Dates and Venues)

El Kikucho etching & aquatint by Elena Alejandra Davicino

With this third exhibition, the British International Miniature Print Exhibition is now established as an entity on the international art scene, at least within its graphic art constituency. The frequent letters of enquiry that arrive at Off-Centre Gallery asking for information about the dates of the next exhibition support this view.

As I write I have around me the catalogues ot Miniature Print Biennales from Cadaques, Spain; Seoul, South Korea; Dublin, Ireland; Budapest, Hungary; and Lodz, Poland, dating back fifteen or more

Different Trains computer generated by Lesley Hilling

years. Reading their introductions heightens the challenge of finding a new approach to the genre avoiding the much repeated truisms. Two brief essays follow, on the miniature in music and in literature and will, we hope, encourage the idea that small-scale forms can contain and express ideas that engage. It seems to us that it is in the realm of contemporary visual art that this mild proposition is more likely to be contested.

 

 

Facts and Figures

First some of the specifics of our exhibition. As in 1994 we retained the limitation of 70sq cms for the image, an area limit rather than a specific maximum dimension in order to encourage flexibility of format. In all, 1,700 entry forms were distributed, to artists' organisations, journals, print workshops and galleries world-wide, though inadequately for such huge areas as China, S.E. Asia and Africa where our contacts are few.

Correlation VIII mezzotint by Masataka Kuroyanagi

There were also many direct requests from artists, the most numerous responses being from countries where information was circulated via specialist publications - for example Argentina, Japan and USA. A little more detail about this may be of interest.

From Argentina we received 108 works from 44 artists (18 works accepted); from Japan we received 132 works from 49 artists (23 works accepted) and from USA 75 works were received from 29 artists (11 works included). This, I find, is a ratio of approximately one accepted out of every six or seven, by chance the proportion which applies to the whole show.

Between late August and the end of October 1996 we received 1,398 works from 540 artists living in 40 countries. This figure is about 430 works fewer than

in 1994, possibly demonstrating a reasonable caution on the part of artists who paid entry fees then but were not selected in that year.

Selection

In the Morning, February etching by Shigeki Tomura.

The Jury of five artists met in Bristol on 1st and 2nd November 1996 and in two long working days selected 205 works by 155 artists from 23 countries⁽¹⁾ The second day ended with an overall assessment of the chosen works as an exhibition aiming to represent the different strands within the submission - colour and monochrome, abstract and figurative and the adequate representation of contemporary techniques. Potential prize winners were selected on the basis of shared enthusiasm within the Jury (rather than graded as 'best in the show').

The Exhibition

One innovation in the presentation of this exhibition is the inclusion of larger works by ten invited artists, who are also represented by two or three miniatures. This arrangement helps the aim of raising the status of small-scale work by demonstrating that artists of serious intent and achievement treat both smaller and larger forms with the same intensity and respect. And the larger works make a series of focal points towards which the viewer will be drawn. As the majority of exhibitors will not be able to visit this exhibition I will include a few more words about the presentation. All exhibits are individually framed in stained narrow wood mouldings. Each image is backed by acid-free card and surrounded by a hand cut bevelled mount in off-white or ivory acid-free card Two larger frames contain the many portrait photographs - colour or black and white - which the artists were asked to send. This is an attempt to humanise and personalise the listing of names in the catalogue. Further information about the exhibitors is available for visitors in a file (at the gallery desk).

Close up

Red Chair lino cut by Claudio Lara

One thing that can be said about successful miniature prints is that they require close attention from the viewer Unlike larger prints, paintings or sculpture which in a certain sense can be 'taken in' at a glance and from a distance, the qualities of many miniatures do not really register until looked at closely, even perhaps with the aid of magnification⁽²⁾ The viewer is required to mimic for a few moments the concentrated attention of the artist during the process of making the image. In this respect the best of miniature art is a kind of visual poetry, the result of refining a visual idea until a concentrated essence or distillation is achieved. Well, maybe . ..but it is a pleasure that no generalisation about art fits all categories. Artists take delight in working against prescriptions.

Peter Ford
February 1997

1 Point of comparison: For the Miniature Print Biennale in 1987 organised by the International Graphic Art Foundation, USA, 451 artists submitted 1,068 works from which the Jury selected 156 for exhibition. Back>>>>>

2 Anyone wanting to look further into questions of scale, with a scientific slant, might enjoy 'Powers of Ten', by Eames and Morrison, published in 1982 by the Scientific American Library. ISBN 0-7167-1409-4. Taking its central page as a starting point, which shows two people relaxing at a picnic, the pages focus ever more closely, each ten times smaller, onto the hand, the skin, through the cell structure, the protons and to quarks; whilst from the centre to the front of the book each page takes the viewer outwards, into the skies, past the stars and to the darkness of the universe.Back>>>>>

 

TOUR VENUES

At the time of going to print - February 1997 - details of the tour are as follows

LEICESTER 27th February to 12th April 1997
The City Gallery, 90 Granby Street, Leicester

DEVIZES 26th April to 24th May 1997
Handel House Contemporary Gallery, Sidmouth Street, Devises.

RYE 31st May to 27th July
Rye Ad Gallery, Stormont Studio, Ockman Lane, East Street, Rye, Sussex.

ABERYSTWYTH (WALES) 9th August to 13th September 1997
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais, Aberyswyth.

UXBRIDGE 24th November to 19th December 1997
Beldam Gallery, Wilfred Brown Building, Brunel University, Cleveland Road. Uxbridge.

LONDON 13th January to 1st February 1998
Bankside Gallery, 40 Hoptun Street, Blackfriars, London SEl

BATHGATE (SCOTLAND) 10th February to 25th March 1998
Balbardi Sports Centre Gallery Bathgate, West Lothian.
Howden Park Centre Gallery Livingstone, West Lothian

DUMFRIES (SCOTLAND) 31st March to 9th May 1998
Gracetield Ads Centre, 28 Edinburgh Road, Dumfries.

SHETLAND (SCOTLAND) 22nd May to 21st June 1998
Bonhoga Gallery, Weisdale Mill, Weisdale, Shetland.

SWANSEA (WALES) July - August 1998
Ceri Richards Gallery, Taliesin Arts Centre, University of Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea

BLEDDFA (WALES) 30th August to 27th September 1998
The Old School Gallery. Bleddfa, Knighton.

RAMSGATE October 1998
Ramsgate Library Gallery, Guildford Lawn, Ramsgate, Kent.

CAERPHILLY (WALES) November - December 1998
Tredomen Gallery, Cserphilly.

BRISTOL 1998-99
(Dates and venue under negotiation)

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