Etched in Acid
Gentleman's Quarterly, "Pulse," April, 1976, by Rosemary Kent.
A cynic, according to Ambrose Bierce, is "a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." While that definition may not entirely fit artist David Itchkawich, The New York Times has described his work as "cynical little etchings" with a "Wonderlandish quality."
Itchkawich's approach to art is mirrored in his life. He once chose to drive his works around New York in a trailer truck rather than hustle Madison Avenue with his portfolio. Currently he's the star exhibitor at Manhattan's annual Washington Square Art Show and a favorite on the year-round art-show circuit on the Eastern Seaboard. Heavily influenced by late movies, especially Slavic ones, his work is satirical, sophisticated and loaded with dark puns. His etchings depict men and women who look as if they've stepped from the pages of Kafka, and bear such murky titles as "A Few of the Hundreds Who Visit Our New Capital Every Day" and "A Really Big One at the Jeu d'Orange Table." A printmaker with a high degree of technical perfection, Itchkawich works in his sunny Lexington Avenue apartment turning out four to five prints a year in editions of 100. "In a sense I'm my own publisher," he says. His etchings can be seen at Horizon Gallery and Fitch-Febvrel Gallery.