See works by Avati
Until February of 2009, Mario Avati was the last survivor of the great trio of mezzotint masters, which included K. Hasegawa and Y. Hamaguchi. Together they gave new life to this most demanding medium*, which now counts hundreds of artists throughout the world.
*M.C. Escher, who produced 8 mezzotints between 1946 and 1951, said he stopped because the process was “too difficult.”
In mezzotint, a copper plate is "rocked" with a curved, notched blade until the surface is entirely pitted. At this stage, an inked plate would print a rich, uniform black. The artist then uses a scraper or burnisher to flatten the raised parts, a little for dark grays, a lot for light grays, completely for white (after inking and wiping, the plate holds no ink where it is smooth). Colors are achieved by similarly working one or more supplementary plates.
The result of this process is an image emerging from pitch black "nothingness." Outlines are simplified by absence of line, while substance is rendered with a virtually infinite range of tonal subtlety. Avati's mastery of the medium is most remarkable in his still lifes, which convey both the volume and dimension of his subjects, combined with a sense of timelessness.
Avati's international stature is confirmed by numerous awards, documentary films made in Japan, the U.S., and Europe; over thirty solo exhibitions in museums and public institutions, and more than sixty gallery exhibitions worldwide. His works are included in more than 100 public collections including, along with some 40 French institutions, the Victoria & Albert (London), The Gemeente Museum (The Hague), Le Musée des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Uffizi (Florence), The Metropolitan Museum of Art & The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Art Institute of Chicago, The Library of Congress & the National Gallery (Washington, D.C.), inter al.
In 2001 Fitch-Febvrel held a small retrospective to mark the artist's 80th year, as well as the publication of Volume VII of a catalogue raisonné spanning more than 50 years of printmaking.
See works by Avati
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