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
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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