Prayer of Solitude, lithograph by Holger Lonze

Printing Stone

"Lithography has always been a natural sculptor's graphic medium. The physicality of the stone, it's texture, volume, mass and tactility respond well to the needs of the sculptor. Even the processing is comparable to sculpture, just like patinating a bronze it requires a certain confident approach and a good understanding of the chemical processes involved."

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Impressing Marks

Printmaking offers a range of media to develop a different kind of drawing and an alternative to pen on paper. Besides creating a different range of marks on the material, printmaking offers the bonus of editioning. Creating multiples of the work is not only a commercial consideration, instead it gives the sculptor the chance to work on stages of an image, to develop it on the plate. Picasso, for example, used etching to gradually develop the image of a bull and so did Rembrandt with his Tausend Gulden Blatt. Editioning also requires a more intimate interaction with the subject and an image. The repeated encounter with the work sparks new ideas and the repetitive process of printing gives the mind space to drift. The commercial aspect also needs to be considered here, as small editions of less than thirty remain in the realm of artisanship and are original work in the truest sense.

Since his time as an architectural student, Holger has been experimenting with printmaking as a presentation medium. First introduced to lithography by Axel Seyler, he studied this technique further under the tutorage of the Texan print maker David Dubose. Lithography or stone printing is Holger's favourite choice of print medium. It is a very sculptural print medium and has hence been the choice of many carvers and modellers, including Henry Moore, Marino Marini, Gustav Seitz and Gerhard Marks.

Graphic Work | The Process of Lithography

Graphic Work

A Sculptor's Medium

During his years at the art college Holger explored the possibilities of multi-colour lithography, working from one stone by deduction of the image - working the full image away with 'snakeslip' and printing four to five colours in this way. He now regularly works on lithography sessions together with the German sculptor Axel Seyler, who inherited his lithography workshop from his printer-grandfather. Holger's work, however, has developed towards pure drawing on the stone - monochrome, mainly using litho crayon and relying fully on the spontaneity and force of the marks. The theme of the sea voyage and the crow - a reference to the medieval Voyage of Bran, Son of Febhal - are currently the dominating themes in Holger's lithographic work. The process relies on a well set-up stationary workshop and is in clear juxtaposition to the mobility of the sea voyage - a challenging contrast for Holger.

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Holger Lonze making a Bronze-Age horn
Straw for the horn core Straw core for horns Core for horns  
Making a core for a horn Adding willow to the core Binding the willow    
Wax for a handbell Wax for bell coated in ash      
         
         

Selection of Graphic Work

Please roll over the thumbs on the right to enlarge images. All images shown here are lithographs, except St. Brendan/Naomhóg agus Iasc (the blue print). A portfolio of etchings is available on request.

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The Process of Lithography

Saxa Loquuntur - Let The Stone Speak

The medium of lithography was discovered and developed in the 1790s by the Bavarian Alois Senefelder and quickly gained great use for commercial purposes, anything from sheet music, forms and labels to reproduction prints. The great quality of reproduction and quality of marks makes it an ideal artist's medium which was discovered by artists like Géricault and the Spanish painter Goya. Honoré Daumier was particularly taken by the medium and produced more than four thousand lithographs in the middle of the 18th century! The complex process is based on the juxtaposition of water and oil: the line of an oily chalk pencil is transformed into a soapy line through etching in the limestone (acid + calcium carbonate = soap) which will accept the greasy ink, while the damp stone will repell the ink. The result is very true to the original and large editions can be printed without loss of quality. While the process has long lost its commercial relevance, it is still an important medium for high quality artist's prints. The images below are taken at the lithography studio of the German sculptor Axel Seyler who collaborates on lithography projects with Holger on an annual basis.

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Holger Lonze making a Bronze-Age horn
Straw for the horn core Straw core for horns Core for horns Horn cores drying  
Making a core for a horn Adding willow to the core Binding the willow Rolling up the stone  
Wax for a handbell Wax for bell coated in ash Bell moulded Casting a handbell  
         
         

Images from Stone

Roll over the thumbs on the left to follow the process of making Holger's lithograph Bran I at Axel Seyler's workshop in 2005. Photos by the artist and Anne Burke.

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