MASTER PRINTMAKER JIM DINE COMES TO CORK STREET

American printmaker, painter and sculptor Jim Dine has arrived on Cork Street with new exhibition A History of Communism, an unmissable print series of ‘found’ art, reinvented at the Alan Cristea Gallery

Remembering Wallace Ting, 2010, woodcut with lithograph paper

One of a suite of 45 stone lithographs with additional etching and engraving

The Orange Birthday Robe, lithograph with woodcut, copperplate etching and rubber stamp

In his new exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery, legendary printmaker Jim Dine presents a series of unseen drawings by Eastern Bloc Artists, made from lithnographic stones. Recovered from a socialist art academy of the German Democratic Republic, the stones had been left untouched, preserving 40 years’ worth of drawings created by students under an oppressive regime. Combined with Dine’s own visual language, A History of Communism tells the story of a government and country which no longer exists.

Staying true to Dine’s style of using appropriated objects, the exhibition reinvents the drawings, using the artist’s motifs to frame, overlay and interfere. As Dine himself explains, ‘the  thrill  for  me  is  inventing,  and  adding  or  taking  out,  changing  from  one  state  to  another. Handcolouring  over  a  woodcut  that’s  in  black  and  white,  then  printing  the  block  again  over  the colour that I painted on, then taking a rag soaked in turpentine and rubbing it over the print, then putting an etching over that. It’s more than that though; it’s the freedom to change when I want to and for the image to grow.’

Running  at  the  gallery’s  second  space  is  Jim  Dine: Printmaker,  a  selection  of  recent  editions  and classic prints by the artist  which tells the story of Dine’s 50 years as a printmaker,  featuring such works as  Orange Birthday Robe  (2010), Remembering Wallace Ting  (2010),  Tools and Dreams  (1985) and 64 Blocks (2009). 

A History of Communism will run at the Alan Cristea Gallery until the 7 of October

Alan Cristea Gallery, 31 & 34 Cork Street W1; alancristea.com

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