Eric Wittenberns - Figure

Eric Wittenberns Figure Collage and stamped 48 x 46 cm Paper: Simili Japon Unique item Design and execution: Eric Wittenberns Signed 1987 Great 300 grams
In 1975 Salix Alba (Eric Wittenberns 1951-2021 and Hans Uijtdewilligen) became a member of Stichting Drukwerk in de Marge. This membership led to contacts with other printers and marginal publishers. Fairs were organised, such as the Market for Small Publishers in Paradiso in Amsterdam and the Small Press Festival in Utrecht. This festival took place in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Utrecht. It was organised annually under the inspiring leadership of curator and poet Wouter Kotte. During these events Eric came into contact with the work of Emile Puettmann. In the late seventies Eric collaborated on a photographic reprint of The Next Call (publisher Reflex, Utrecht in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum) by the Groningen typographer/printer H.N. Werkman. The Next Call was an avant-garde magazine that Werkman printed in the 1920s and sent to fellow artists. He experimented with typography. The work of the Rotterdam typographer Emile Puettmann and the Groningen printer H.N. Werkman inspired Eric. He also admired the work of Frans de Jong (Drukhuis, Amsterdam). Eric used letters and other printing forms in his graphic work. Later he also applied this in his paintings. He stamped his typographic work by hand or printed it on the Korrex cylinder proof press. In his typographic work he used various lead and wooden letters in addition to etchings and woodcuts. He also cut a font that he used in his typographic experiments.