Many readers will be familiar with Gerrie Casper's long-running and much-loved blog, The Linosaurus. I had a reminder this morning about all the work Gerrie had also put into his two volumes called Das Haus de Frau. The subject is German women artists who were making colour woodcuts between 1914 and 1939 and is available either as books or a PDF from www.dashausderfrau.nl I have not read it yet, but I know Gerrie has put a huge amount of research into this subject over the past ten years, so for anyone interested in German colour woodcut, it will be a must.
I assume Valerie Petter-Zeis (top) visited Bosnia during the first war and she may be Austrian. Nevertheless Aus Sarajevo from 1917 is a good print and is currently available from Galerie bei de Oper in Vienna at 420 euros. Taking the subject of the Muslim Mediterranean one stage further is Emil Orlik's etching of Egyptian women published in Berlin in 1922 and available from the same gallery at the same price (and many thanks to them for the use of their excellent photographs). The subject of the discovery of the southern Mediterranean by artists is replete with irony and frustration in equal amounts and really should have been covered better by Modern Printmakers. I never bought into Edward Said's ideas about orientalism and never even reached the middle of anything he wrote, including a tortuous article he once wrote for The Times. I believe the discovery began with Eugene Delacroix who made observations about the population of Tangier that remain true to this very day.
Thank you for your kind words and referencing. Although Valery is not (yet) represented with an actual work in my personal collection, she is both in Website and book. Besides the middle-east and north Africa she also visited and depicted the Balkan countries and Paris. For your readers who may be interested in the research, my collection, the website and its archive: visit the website.
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