Within the scope of the International Festival of Mezzotint in Ekaterinburg planned for 2010, the Regional Natural History Museum and the Publishing House "Artifact" present the exhibition of handmade mezzotint engravings (manera negra) "MEZZOTINT: OUT OF DARKNESS".

The exhibition opens on March 31, 2009 at the Sverdlovsk Regional Studies Museum on Lenina Prospekt.

Cleo Wilkinson. Discarnate. Mezzotint, 50x50 cm. 2007. Australia

The Ministry of Culture of Sverdlovsk Region and the U.S. Consulate General sponsor the exhibition within the scope of its 15th anniversary in the Ural and Western Siberia.

The U.S. Ambassador in Russia John Beyrle and the culture minister of the Sverdlovsk region Natalya Vetrova will open the exhibition. The Museum's Deputy Director, Vladimir Bykodorov will host the exhibition while Nikita Korytin, Director of the Publishing House "Artifact" will introduce the exhibition and its special significance.

At the exhibition visitors may enjoy unique and magnificent metal engravings produced by a technique called "mezzotint." The exposition holds 120 works of 27 contemporary graphic artists from Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Serbia.

On April 1-2 during the exhibition a number of master-classes will take place. During the show a printing press and other displayed equipment will be used. The master-classes are headed by graphic artist Marina Lazareva (Moscow) who is a popularizer of mezzotint in Russia and Kath Kornelsen Rutherford (Canada) whose works are represented in many public and private collections worldwide - the Canada Council Art Bank, the Nova Scotia Art Bank, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Hudson's Bay Company.

Her private collection, featuring color on black and white, is being shown separately in the Art Gallery on Krasnoarmeyskaya 32.

Marianne Stam. Clarinet. Mezzotint, 8x7.5 cm. 2006. The Netherlands

Mezzotint is among the most physically demanding mediums in art, often disregarded as "too difficult". A copper plate is "rocked" with a curved, notched blade until the surface is entirely pitted. At this stage, an inked plate would print a paper page in a rich, uniform black. The artist then uses a scraper or burnisher to flatten the raised parts, a little for dark grays, a lot for light grays, completely for white (after inking and wiping, the plate holds no ink where it is smooth). Colors are achieved by similarly working one or more supplementary plates. A high level of quality and richness in the print can be achieved, sometimes attaining a quality of "photo-realism" and mystical evanescence.

The mezzotint printmaking method was invented by the Dutch amateur artist Ludwig von Siegen (1609-1680). His earliest mezzotint print dates to 1642 and is a portrait of Amelia Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). This was made by working from light to dark.

Today only 500 graphic artists in the world use mezzotint. 27 artists present their works in Ekaterinburg.

Donald Furst. Consider. Mezzotint, 21x11.5 cm. 1996. USA

The exhibition opens at the Ekaterinburg Gallery of Modern Art:
Krasnoarmeiskaya ul., 32A (ул. Красноармейская 32А)
Phone: (343) 358 99 96; (343) 350 22 00

And at the Regional Natural History Museum :
Lenina Prospect, 69/10 (Проспект Ленина 69/10)
Phone: (343) 350 67 75

Photo: the Publishing House "Artifact"