Red Fort

4 color letterpress print

Edition of 100, signed and numbered

44 x 34 cm / 17.3 x 13.4 in

Paper: Gmund Colors Matt, 300 g/m2

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"There are two opposing aspects of drawing that I’m obsessing over:
Spontaneity and control. A first sketch often has a raw energy, and I believe that this urgency is palpable, even to a non-expert audience.
 Then again: it’s a first sketch. Often there’s a fatal flaw in the composition, or you later realize you picked the wrong format, color or even medium. When I draw something I haven’t drawn a hundred times, or when the scene is a little complex, I inevitably mess up details. As much as I love analog mediums, so much of my work is only possible because of the fine tuning and infinite undos that only digital work allows.

This inspiring conflict was essential to this print.

One of the highlights of my trip to India was an impromptu print making session with some friends. We gave ourselves one hour to create a black and white lino cut. I picked the portico of the Diwan-i-An, because I had tried (and failed) that morning to turn the scene into a brush and ink drawing.

I did just a one minute sketch on the linoleum and then went straight to cutting. Everything about this session was great — the light, the mood, sitting with friends, chatting and making art. Except: I wasn’t quite happy with the image. I took a print and the plate back to Berlin and kept staring at it: I liked the coarse shapes, the contrast, and how the two colors had forced me to reinvent the architecture. But it felt too heavy, and there were too many clumsy details I couldn’t befriend.

So I kept working on it. I drew more layers, scanned, cropped & pasted. After a month I eventually felt that the image finally captured the scene.

The process reminded me of something our teacher Heinz Edelmann once said: “It takes an hour to have a good idea and 20 hours to make it look like it was made in 5 minutes.”