1179 - Gisela Kohl, view over backyards and roofs of a city with chimneys, 1970

Gisela Kohl, view over backyards and roofs of a city with chimneys, 1970 (born 1943). Etching on paper, signed and dated in pencil below the image at left “Kohl 70”. View from an elevated standpoint over backyards and roofs of a city. At left a flat-roofed outbuilding, at the centre a light multi-storey apartment block, in front of it a flock of white pigeons taking flight, at right a dark row of houses with tall windows and a dormer. Above the roofs chimneys, aerials and wires as well as a kite rising on a taut string, in the foreground a board fence and a yard with small figures. Age-appropriate condition, slightly foxed, margins water-stained, torn and creased. Image 19x25.5 cm (HxW), sheet 38x50 cm (HxW). Etching is an intaglio process: the drawing is scratched with a needle into the etching ground of a metal plate, the exposed lines are deepened in acid, then filled with ink and printed onto dampened paper under high press pressure. The pressure leaves the plate mark in the paper that is characteristic of the technique. Unlike in engraving, the needle can be handled freely like a pencil, which gives etching its draughtsmanlike, lively line.