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SANDOW BIRK: The Depravities of War
November 8 - December 16, 2007Just as Goya drew on the prints of the French printer Jacques Callot (1592-1635) for inspiration, Sandow Birk now draws on Callot to create a series of prints commenting on the debaucheries of warfare in our times. Using Callot’s images as a starting point and casting their epic compositions in both America and in the ravaged landscape of Iraq, Birk’s prints depict the course of war and its aftereffects. Scaled up and utilizing the woodcarving process to full graphic effect, the images are at once familiar and contemporary, while recognizable as drawing from traditions of art history, specifically Callot’s Miseries and Misfortunes of War.
The project consists of 15 large-scale woodcut prints, each measuring 48” x 96”. Printed in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Mullowney of HuiPress in Hawaii, and using traditional woodblock printing techniques on Japanese paper, the images follow the course of an unnamed, but recognizable war – from the recruiting and training of troops to the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. Images depict the attacks on the mosque in Fallouja, the torturing of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, and insurgent bombings of vehicles along Baghdad’s notorious Airport Road. As in current events, the initial invasion soon degenerates into guerilla warfare and chaos, popular uprisings, scenes of abuse, and eventually to the returning of wounded veterans and would-be celebrations of heroism. Like his predecessors, Birk’s prints draw on art history and current events in a polemical series that critiques the eternal and universally senseless practice of war and military injustice. Sandow Birk is a Los Angeles artist well known for his adaptation of historical art as the basis for works that comment on social and political issues of contemporary America. The exhibition includes recent paintings by Birk related to the series.
A catalogue of the same name accompanies the exhibition published by HuiPress, Makawao, Hawaii and Grand Central Press, Grand Central Art Center, California State University, Fullerton.
Sandow Birk: The Depravities of War was made possible by Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles
Sandow Birk Gallery Talk
Video PodcastClick on the image to left
For information on Sandow Birk's acclaimed animated film Dante's Inferno (directed by Sean Meredith)
please visit www.dantefilm.com
Image Credit: Sandow Birk, Invasion, from The Depravities of War, 2007, woodblock print on paper, 48 x 96", courtesy of the artist
