Guntars Sietiņš
Where is the artist hiding? Guntars Sietiņš’s mezzotints
By Anita Vanaga
Black as a given value
Within the ramified diversity of the print, there is only one technique that begins with darkness and continues in the dark, remaining in the zone of darkness, where even the lightest point is touched by shadow. This is mezzotint (Italian mezzo-tinto – half-tone), a method of intaglio invented in 1642 by Ludwig von Siegen (1609-1680?).
Darkness is the root of philosophical ideas on nothingness, non-existence and the black hole, whose counterpart in painting is a black square… In contrast to the tabula rasa, the beginning of all that is new, darkness leads to recollection – recalling to mind the primeval, prenatal condition, the subconscious, when darkness is revealed as distance, contemplation and meditation. Endlessness or infinity.
The genetic link between the mezzotint and darkness determines and delimits the choice of subject matter. In the mezzotint, even the simplest still life arrangement is transformed into a metaphysical arrangement on account of the mysterious light arising from nowhere – an ashen glow that endows object with a faint luminosity. Nevertheless, whatever is present in the image, it is the darkness that first addresses the viewer of the mezzotint.
Optical pronouncements
A single visual element does not create an optical pronouncement. The pronouncement comes about from the combination of two elements (space and object) or more, from the interaction and mutual resonance that they produce. Optical pronouncements, just a verbal pronouncements, can be expressed in terms of a monologue or dialogue. ‘The monologue and the dialogue express deep, fundamental differences in thinking, orientation and perception of the world: the monologue is oriented towards demonstrating the achieved result and is characteristic of mythological thinking, while the dialogue attempts to show how the result has been achieved, to reveal the course of the guest, so that the dialogue is characteristic of scientific logical thinking.’1
Where is the artist hiding?
Characteristic of Latvian graphic artist Guntars Sietiņš’s (born in 1962) works is imagery moulded in geometry. Starting with ‘State of Peace’ and ‘Balance’ (both 1987), where in the ouroboros symbol one glimpses the structure of the circle, it is this circle that bears the greatest semantic load. ‘The circle is the synthesis of the great oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric (sic) in a single form, and in balance. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.’2 The circularity of ‘Balance’ is accented by the illusion of a circle with space – the sphere, reflecting the snake eating its own tail.
Since 1995 the use of mirror balls in photographic arrangements brings together a geometrically ideal form and a reflection of deformed reality, giving rise to series of the works under names ‘Levitation’ (1995-2000) and ‘Characters’ (2007-2013). The layers of visual information touch and get harmonized or counteract, giving rise to various associations and evoking the desired “chemistry” of sensations. By 2007 the artist’s message was pronouncedly spatial, but then verbalized, linearly readable notions appeared. In the prints from series “Characters” letters form words, and mirrored words conceptualize the image and minimize its outer expression. This series of recent works by Guntars Sietiņš’s includes 15 prints, which are created in the technique of mezzotint mixed with aquatint.
In contrast to the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), who saw himself and his surroundings when he looked in the spherical mirror, Sietiņš removes the human figure. Transforming reality, the artist draws attention to objects outside of himself. But the return of the objects in a new arrangement indicates, along with the continuity of time, changes in the inner development of the artist. The shifts give away that which the artist would like to hide. And it is himself that he wishes to hide.
1 Veinbergs, J. Ijaba ceļš uz patiesību (Job’s Progress toward Truth) // Ijabs (Job). – Rīga: Zinātne, 1997. – P. 132, in Latvian
2 Wassily Kandinsky’s letter to Will Grohmann. Quoted from: Katsunori Hamanishi (1977-1997). –Bradley University. – (N. d.) – P. 4