James Whistler, USA - A Review by Kris Westreich
The prints in this exhibition were
wonderful. They allowed the viewer to trace his artistic development
through his etchings. At the beginning, things were tightly rendered and
detail-filled. Towards the end, the prints tend to describe through suggestion rather
than detail. One thing I saw that I never considered was the way Whistler used the plate tone to establish value. He will leave more plate tone in an area
that he wants to be darker and wipe out others that he wants to be lighter. In
this way he challenges the idea of a print having to be exactly the same each
time. My two favorites of the exhibition were “Nocturne: Palaces” and “Weary.” They both tend to put more detail in certain parts of the print, and leave
others as merely outlines or as indications rather than full-blown
descriptions. Some of them almost
approach an abstract emptiness, such as in “Old Battersea” bridge. Of course,
the draftsmanship present is also very accomplished in these etchings.
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