Article
Collection Publications: Klinger to Kollwitz Labels
Considered the father of the modern graphic art movement in Germany, Klinger was one of the first German artists to regard prints an integral part of his work. IN his 1891 treatise, Malerei und Zeichnung (Painting and Drawing), he revived the Romantic conception of the graphic arts as an autonomous aesthetic genre distinct from, but equal to, painting.
Klinger produced a number of print cycles: sets of images based on a theme that were meant to be viewed in sequential order. This format likened the viewing of prints to the act of reading a book or, as Klinger envisioned, listening to a musical oeuvre.
Abduction is the ninth plate of his earliest print cycle, Ein Handschuh (A Glove), Opus VI, based on ten drawings exhibited in Berlin in 1878. The sequence depicts a young artist who picks up a glove dropped by an attractive woman. During the night he has a series of dreams in which the glove is rescued, enshrined, and abducted. This combination of reality and dream imagery anticipates Surrealism. Although many interpretations of Abduction have been suggested, Klinger stated in a letter to his mother that it is an allegory of the return of the glove to its owner.
Klinger produced a number of print cycles: sets of images based on a theme that were meant to be viewed in sequential order. This format likened the viewing of prints to the act of reading a book or, as Klinger envisioned, listening to a musical oeuvre.
Abduction is the ninth plate of his earliest print cycle, Ein Handschuh (A Glove), Opus VI, based on ten drawings exhibited in Berlin in 1878. The sequence depicts a young artist who picks up a glove dropped by an attractive woman. During the night he has a series of dreams in which the glove is rescued, enshrined, and abducted. This combination of reality and dream imagery anticipates Surrealism. Although many interpretations of Abduction have been suggested, Klinger stated in a letter to his mother that it is an allegory of the return of the glove to its owner.
