Belgium is mostly renowned for its strong beers and high-quality chocolate, but this tiny country has an unsuspected specialty: visual artists. Belgium is an endless reservoir of notable talent and home to artists such as: Rubens, Bruegel, Rops, Ensor, Khnopff, Spilliaert, Magritte and today’s focus… Pasternak.
ABOUT PASTERNAK
Maurice Pasternak was born in 1946, in Brussels, where he continues to live and work. He studied engraving at ENSAV – La Cambre, where he graduated in 1968. He is known, locally and abroad, for his pastel and engraving works, and more specifically for his mastery of mezzotint (aka – black manner), a rare engraving technique. Since 1967, his work has been shown in many international biennials and triennials and awarded more than 20 prizes, notably the Philadelphia Print Club’s Walker Price. He also takes part in solo exhibitions in France, UK, US, China and Japan. He recently exposed a selection of his engraving and pastel works at Le Salon d’ Art in Brussels.
BLACK MANNER
While it would make an amazing band name, Black manner is a reversed engraving process that goes from black to white rather than white to black. It is obtained by roughening the metal plate with a comb-looking tool called a rocker. The rocker’s teeth produce small burrs that retain ink during the printing process. Left alone, the pierced plate creates a deep black print. Drawings or patterns, can then be added by scraping and burnishing some parts of the plate, producing lighter areas. Mezzotint is a very complex and laborious technique but it builds outstanding blacks and subtle gradations of tones.
MORE THAN TECHNIQUE
Its complexity is Pasternak’s main reasoning for favoring black manner over any other engraving technique. Playing on halftones enables him to do amazing work with contrasts and shadows. His technical know-how is huge, but execution doesn’t override essential aspects such as composition or subject. One of his work’s distinguishing features is, actually, the use of vista perspective in its composition, placing the viewer in an overlooking position. Considered as a neo-figurative artist, Pasternak depicts large groups of individuals, yet, disconnected from each other, unable to communicate and trapped in solitude.
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