Rudolf Kurz

Rudolfkurz

Toronto, ON

274

16 Following 274 Followers

All items in my shop (except, of course, my books) are originals. Shipping is free.

BIOGRAPHY: Trained as a medical doctor in my native Germany, I later travelled and ended up studying painting at the Art Students' League in New York City. Since moving to Canada I have shown my art in five solo exhibitions and many group shows. I have also painted a dozen murals in hospitals, libraries and schools - the largest of them sixty-five meters long!

My carefully detailed, often bizarre and darkly humorous paintings, drawings and etchings are influenced by Surrealism and by the art of medieval and Renaissance Northern Europe.

ETCHINGS: I create my etchings using a centuries old printmaking technique. I don't use any shortcuts like photographic transfer of an image to a printing plate. The design is drawn and then etched with acid onto a treated zinc or copper plate. This image is printed on dampened, thick printmaking paper, using an old fashioned, hand cranked intaglio press. My favourite printmaking paper is the French paper BFK Rives, made by a company that is centuries old. Making one print takes about half an hour. Creating the printing plate takes many days. ( This is why my prints are priced higher than photomechanical reproductions.) My prints are limited to an edition between 30 and 50. They are signed, numbered and titled by me. For example: the number
3 / 40 denotes print number 3 in an edition of 40.

ARTIST"S PROOFS: Sometimes I offer 'artist's proofs' in this shop. Artist's proofs are 'extra' prints; usually no more than 10 % of an edition are artist's proofs; they are traditionally numbered with Roman numerals and marked 'a.p.'. An a. p. is usually printed in the early stages of an edition, when the printing plate is still in top condition- that's why they are considered especially valuable by collectors.

Some artist's proofs are also printed while the etching is being developed: this way I can check the progress of the etching plate and see whether more work needs to be done. I often 'correct' these proofs with watercolour, pencil or ink to get an idea where I want to go with the plate in the next state.

REVIEWS: 'Rudolf Kurz does incredible etchings which are allegorical, perverse, and extremely lovely. I'm so impressed by his linework, as well as his ability to balance the grotesque with the sublime.' - Pam Grossman, Phantasmaphile, July 2009

'... anything goes... The hybrid products of fanciful genetic experiments are so believably drawn, it's hard to imagine they don't exist.' - Tralee Pierce, In the Hills ( Autumn 1999)

'...(Rudolf's) etchings are full of intricate details, which reveal layer upon layer of hidden reality. Each is worth a second or third look.' - Nicole Laidler, scenemegazine, (July 8, 2004)

BOOKS: In 2004 'Looking for Snails on a Sunday Afternoon' was published by the Porcupine's Quill. This book contains a collection of my writings and etchings. It won an honourable mention from the Alcuin Society in Canada and was short listed for a Leipzig Book Award and exhibited at the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany.

My other books are: 'An Illustrated Alphabet for the Illiterate' (also published by the Porcupine's Quill and co-written with my daughter Elizabeth), 'The Rats Came Back', a children's book, published in English and French (Annick Press, Toronto) and German (Kinderbuch Verlag, Berlin), 'Sound of Hungry Animals', an illustrated collection of poems by Griffin Prize winning poet A. F. Moritz, and 'BIZARRE' (2020), a collection of 40 drawings.