Philippe Mohlitz

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We are saddened to report the death in March, 2019, of the artist Philippe Mohlitz at his home in Bordeaux.


Philippe Mohlitz was a key figure in the resurgence of traditional intaglio printmaking in France in the 60's and 70's,  influencing a score of slightly younger artists, Erik Desmazières and Gérard Trignac prominent among them. Mohlitz was key as well to the early years of Fitch-Febvrel, our first exhibition in 1972 having paired him with M. C. Escher.

Recipient of the Grand Prix L.G. Baudry 2000, Philippe Mohlitz is well known to printmakers and collectors for having spectacularly rescued the art of copper engraving from a long period of increasingly stiff and stylized treatment. A virtually self-taught virtuoso of the burin (engraving tool), Mohlitz restored a freedom of line to the medium not seen for centuries. In his best work he achieved a flow of light, particularly difficult to render in engraving, reminiscent of Dürer's "St. Jerome in his Study". The artist's imagination, moreover, was equal to his technique, with fantastic visions which fascinate in both composition and detail.

Since his first individual show outside Europe, organized in New York by Fitch-Febvrel in 1973, Mohlitz has had numerous exhibitions in Europe, the U.S., and particularly Japan. His catalogue raisonné was presented in 1977 with an introduction by Walter Koschatsky, curator of the Albertina in Vienna. Included in that collection, his prints are also to be found in the collections of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, inter al.


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