1
1 -
Relief 2,
RE 002
2 -
Relief 8
,
RE 008
Line, Surface, Space and Time
Fifty years of artistic endeavour – a retrospective view
byWin Labuda
Series
Line
This part of my graphic works, the “lineatures” is comprised of embossed
prints. Originally they were two-dimensional pictures done in pencil. At
first look they appear to be creations of the mind, of fleeting nature, quasi
non-Euclidian geometries. They should be seen as fragments of artful
architectures, carefully arranged after having fallen down and recom-
bined to emblematic buildings and formations. In their new form they
may serve as refuge for noble thoughts and feelings. They are metaphors
of the words of Schiller: The old is crumbling down – the times are chan-
ging, /And from the ruins blooms a fairer life. The pictures of childhood
appear in them, a visit to Dresden in 1948, Germany’s demolished cathe-
drals with their Gothic fragments strewn on the ground, which now in my
subconscious replicate their forms – the clearing of the rubble in the
deserts of ruins of the postwar years, the hope for a new life– thus, they
embody at the same time healing and hopeful confidence which has
become form. I have been drawing them for a quarter of a century in
small, black books. Sometimes I forget it for a time, and then the forms
flow easily frommy hand once again, and the drawing becomes a reflec-
tion of my state of mind. In the course of time the lineatures have
changed: the fragmentary aspect has occasionally given way to an
archaic or even playful form. They have gladly acquiesced to the force of
the embossing into the porous white rag paper. Here they appear as
embossed prints, stroked by light, in the dignity of their immaculate
existence.
Series
Surface
Essentially my bas-reliefs are metamorphoses which have evolved out of
the lineatures. The contours are given, and the contoured surfaces
appear in fine nuances of white. My first creative impulse for the works of
this series was always a pencil drawing. However, until now
the lineatures have not always been willing to follow the temptation to
give them a sculptural dimension. In Tokyo in 1990 my reliefs in matte
white were exhibited in such a way allowing us to experience time as the
subtle grey of the shadow wandering with the position of the sun. But at
that time I had given these reliefs a frame which set an unfortunate
