Black Heart Press

Gert & Uwe Tobias - The Etchings
The Romanian-born German twins are known for their awesome woodcuts, but:
This video: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/202/1068 shows Jacob Samuel talking about his collaboration with G & U in their studio in Cologne, and his nifty portable aquatint box. Healthcare enthusiasts will love the video, it just seems so wrong to have your mouth come in contact with a hose that ends in a box full of powdered rosin, but I guess there is some kind of valve somewhere. I was also taught to get the rosin cloud going, and only then adding the plate, but whatever, the prints they made look absolutely stunning.
Printed in an edition of 17, on Gampi on a backing paper of Somerset Satin (500g/m²) - maybe I’m becoming a bit snobbish due to recent printing projects that involved Gampi, but when it comes to getting the most out of rich aquatint graduations, nothing beats Gampi <3 (maybe silk? I would love to pull more prints on really fine silk..)

Side note: I love the idea of a portable aquatint box, but whoop, that shipping crate is huge. Then again, I’m glad he didn’t mount the whole thing on his bike or Saab or whatever and took off on a fringe culture road trip, handing out free crummy prints along the way. For certain collaborative projects it might actually be a really good idea to pack a good, portable version of the shop and come visit, as opposed to inviting the artist over. Maybe cheaper, too ;)

Further reading:

The entire suite of prints at EditionJS, Santa Monica:
http://www.editionjs.com/img/tobias/ 

 Moldavian music, made in Romania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRKZ_4RV0Rg 
so good, so good.

MoMA has the suite in their collection, gifted from Edition Jacob Samuel and the artists, and also shows them on a special website for print/out. I’m sure many of you will be as thankful as I was for the zoom function, which allows the print-curious viewer to blow up a 350x400px jpg two twice it’s actual size. The only true way to really appreciate fine art. I hope someone gifts MoMA a proper scanner and an intern soon, to remedy this.. 
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/printout/works/untitled-gert-and-uwe-tobias/ COUNT THE PIXELS