Title

Hirschfeld-Mack’s monotypes as an index of modernist migration.

Author

Eckett, Jane

Source

Prints, printmaking and philanthropy: A symposium celebrating 50 years of The Harold Wright and The Sarah and William Holmes Scholarships. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 30 September - 2 October 2019.

Publication date

30 September 2019

Type

Conference paper

Language

English

Countries of context

Australia | New Zealand

Abstract

Hirschfeld-Mack’s monotypes as an index of modernist migration. Dr Jane Eckett, Art History Program, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne. Hirschfeld-Mack’s monotypes as an index of modernist migration Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893–1965) is best known in Australia as the Geelong Grammar art master who provided a vital link with the Weimar Bauhaus, where he studied and taught between 1919 and 1925. His progressive views on art education are well documented and his contributions to the field have shaped the way art has been taught in Australia from kindergarten to secondary level. Beyond Australia’s borders he is celebrated for his farben licht-spiele (colour light plays), which pioneered the use of light as a kinetic medium in art. These have been widely discussed in the many histories written of the Bauhaus and analysed in connection to kinetics, optics and avant-garde experimental theatre. In comparison, little has been written about his sustained engagement with the medium of monotype, specifically with the durchdrückzeichnung – or press-through drawing – monotype technique. Yet consideration of this side of his practice reveals how a specific technique developed at the Bauhaus, widely credited to Paul Klee, developed and changed in migration: first in Britain and then Australia. In this paper I compare Hirschfeld-Mack’s monotypes with Klee’s ölfarbzeichnungen, or oil colour drawings, considering their different emphases on the traced and transferred line. I then survey the variations Hirschfeld-Mack introduced to the basic durchdrückzeichnung technique: employing cognates, shadowing and occasionally counterproofs, along with richly elaborate colour washes, which, taken together, paradoxically undermine yet underscore the unique status of the monotype. I conclude by comparing Hirschfeld-Mack’s monotypes with others made in post-war Australia and Britain, proposing the technique provides a tangible index with which to trace the north-south migration of modernist mark making. [Conference Program]