Heritage of Angkor

by German artist Jorg Schmeisser, was shown at the National gallery in Bangkok last year (July 2000). Later this year a show of the same subject will be shown in Dresden and Gdansk.

Jorg Schmeisser was born in 1942 in Stolp, Pomerania, grew up and went to art school in Hamburg, before moving to Japan for post-graduate studies in 1968. He moved to Canberra, Australia in 1978, appointed to head the Printmaking Workshop of the Canberra School of Art. Residencies and fellowships have taken his to Jerusalem, Hangzhou and Princeton University — and to work in Angkor and, since his resignation from teaching in 1997, also to Antarctica.

"Angkor in Cambodia flourished from the 9th century to 15th century as the cultural, commercial and administrative centre of the Khmer kingdoms. It came to the attention of the west in the 19th century as an exotic place where the jungle had reputedly reclaimed the temples and ruins of an ancient civilisation. Angkor Wat is only one, but the most spectacular and famous , of the many temples in the Angkor area. My first visit to the ancient ruins of Angkor was only a brief stay in 1969, with the war in neighbouring Vietnam very close. I was on the way from Japan to archaeological work in Israel then. Most of my Angkor etchings date from a second visit in 1999. The majority of them were drawn on site onto the copperplates, then etched, further developed and editioned in Canberra."

Jorg Schmeisser.

All You Have Gained Along the Way

" Jorg Schneisser’s distinguished printmaking career is informed by a restless curiosity about the perception and essence of the visual world. From the outset Schmeisser has been inspired by travel, his imagination fired by the regular injections of the unfamiliar and unknown. An alphabetical index of his prints would commence with Antarctica, and conclude with Zanskar (Ladakh), with entries between on Canberra, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Nara, Peking and Venice.

"The stimulation of travel is not novel in the history of printmaking. Artists have gone abroad for a variety of reasons, to learn from studying acknowledged masters, to obtain work, to see the great natural and man-made sights. In the fifteenth century-century, German artists completing an aprenticeship were expected to depart on the ‘wanderjahre’, a period of roaming as a journeyman. Albrecht Durer was among the first printmakers to be inspired by travel, visiting Colmar, Basle, Stuttgart and the Netherlands in the early 1490s. He later journeyed twice across the Alps to Venice, the jewel-encrusted capital of an extensive maritime republic. Durer’s intent was to immerse himself in the contemporary culture of humanist Italy, evidence of which had reached him in the form of prints and books in his hometown of Nuremburg. He wrote from Venice, praising the fine company he kept, the knowledgeable men of the arts and music. In one of his last letters from Venice, he closes ‘How I shall freeze after this sun! Here I am a gentleman, at home only a parasite.’

"The Czech printmaker Wenceslaus Hollar traveled extensively during most of his career, more out of necessity than by desire. Though born in Prague in 1607, the interminable wars that swept through central Europe during his youth caused him to spend his twenties working in Stuttgart, Strasburg, Frankfurt and Cologne. His restful images were in remarkable contrast to the war and destruction that characterised Hollar’s environment. In 1634 he travelled to the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Delft and Rotterdam. His etchings were greatly influenced by the Dutch terrain, as well as his contact with contemporary landscape printmakers. In Antwerp he added an unusual subject to his repertoire, executing still life prints of sea-shells, and etchings of ladies’ muffs and gloves that are now arguably his most famous works.

"In the nineteenth century technological advances made widespread travel far more efficient and secure. Larger numbers of middle and upper class Americans and Europeans visited sights that had previously been inaccessible or dangerous. Artists also travelled more readily, both encouraging travel with their depictions of exotic locales, and responding to the demand for mementos of these visited meccas. Printmakers in particular sought to communicate the allure of a foreign destination, as souvenirs and as a form of armchair travel. The American expatriate James McNeill Whistler is exemplary of the new school of view-etchers. Born in Massachusetts, brought up in Russia, dismissed from West Point military academy, and sacked from his government job, Whistler departed to study art in Paris at the age of twenty-one. In 1879 Whistler travelled to Venice on a commission from a commercial gallery to execute a dozen prints in time for the holiday season. Instead he remained eighteen months and created in excess of fifty elegant images that enlarged the vocabulary of etching and forever redefined the way artists perceived Venice.

"Schmeisser’s first extensive travel was to the Middle East in 1965 as part of an excavation team in Israel for the University of Missouri. His objective recording of archaeological finds led to a precision and detail characteristic of much of his later work. Travel to Greece, and return trips to Israel were later followed by journeys through Italy, Australia, India, China, and Japan. Since making his home in Canberra, Australia, twenty years ago, travel has continued as an integral source of inspiration. In the recent past he has travelled widely through the United States, to China, to Japan, to the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and to Australian Antarctica. As with Durer, his noble German forbear, he has travelled to learn from other cultures and to interact with other artists. As with Hollar, he has captured the appearance of a world in constant flux, in landscape and in still life. As with Whistler, he has captured a new vision of places familiar and unknown, pushing his media to new expressive possibilities".

Excerpts from the Introduction "A Close Look, Jorg Schmeisser" by Eric Denker, Washington.