PHOTOGRAPHS VERSUS LINES AND INK

MELVILLE MCLEAN: NORTHEAST TO SOUTHWEST

WOOD ENGRAVINGS FROM THE COLLECTION
On view at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, Maine
From May 16 to July 5, 2003

By Laurie Meunier Graves

Once upon a time, in the dim, dark ages before cameras and photography, when ink ruled the known world, people got glimpses of life from various types of prints. From the ancient Egyptians to Albrecht Dürer to Winslow Homer, prints were used for illumination and illustration. This, of course, changed with the advent of photography. (However, for a brief time there was a sort of coexistence. We had both Mathew Brady and Winslow Homer recording images of the Civil War—the former using photography and the latter using prints.) As is often the case, the new technology eventually trumped the old one, and prints have gone from being primarily a source of illustration to a somewhat antiquated art form.

At the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, Maine, there are two exhibits—one of photographs and one of prints—that beautifully illustrate the very different appeal that comes with each form. One is bold and vivid and bright. The images immediately catch your attention as they surround you in a sort of panoramic wrap. The other is more modest and subdued and subtle. They demand close examination, study, and thought. It’s another case of the extrovert jostling with the introvert, and while I certainly appreciated and admired both, as a New Englander my heart went to the introvert.

In Northeast to Southwest, Melville McLean’s huge photographs are, quite simply, stunning, perhaps even overwhelming. He has turned his camera on the forests, rocks, and water of the Northeast as well as the deserts of the Southwest. In Rain Clouds and Sandstone, the black clouds seemed to sweep over my head. I could almost feel them and hear the deep rumblings of thunder. Northwest Gander River, a photograph of a shallow riverbed, is an unearthly shade of blue, and the green plants in Codroy Pond are so bright they look Technicolored. Not all of the photographs in this exhibit have such brilliant hues, but somehow they all have an intensity that can be overwhelming, and, oddly enough, make the real seem a little unreal. Yes, these are pictures of actual places, but even the ones shot in the Northeast have an unfamiliar quality. Perhaps it’s their large size. Perhaps it’s the colors. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. And while I liked this exhibit very much, it was somewhat of a relief to leave the big gallery with its huge photographs and go into the smaller gallery with its not-so-huge wood engravings.

Wood Engravings from the Collection is everything the photography exhibit is not. It is dark and moody and sober. Many different artists made the prints, and while they are unified by the medium that produced them, the prints show a wide range of style and focus.

Dark Mountain by Paul Landacre has a gleaming, cubist look, with hard angles and sharp points. It was no surprise to find it was done in 1934. On the other hand, two by Georges Rouault—Passion and Head of Clown—have such broad lines (along with some fine ones, of course) that they almost look like they have been painted. In Passion, two men embrace, and in Head of Clown, there’s a giant floating head with picket-edged teeth. Yes, indeed. Clowns are creepy.

Then there is Siri Beckman’s lovely work, Mist in the Valley and Approaching Storm. The first is an exquisite little miniature of a farm. The second is a seascape of rough waters, islands, dark clouds, and, in one corner, people getting their boats ready to weather the storm.

Dogwood by James D. Havens has a ghostly dogwood flower superimposed over red and green leaves.

I could go on and describe each of the pictures in this terrific exhibit, but I’ll end with Leo J. Meissner, whose four very different prints perfectly illustrate the range of this medium. Medieval Stairway is, of course, a stairway in a castle. It has a wonderful, gloomy Renaissance look. Blackberries is, again, as the title suggests, a branch of black berries and leaves, and it could be part of a collection of botanical illustrations. Aquatic World is either a view through the glass of an aquarium or a picture of a coral reef. There are fish, sea horses, seaweed, and the rippling motion of water. Hannah in Profile is a portrait of an old woman with a large nose. Her hair is pinned up, but some of it is escaping, and she has a patient, stoic look.

After seeing these two exhibits, I tried to imagine a world without photographs, a world that was shown through various kinds prints. Even with my vivid imagination, this is no easy trick. Photography is so prevalent, so present, so much a part of modern society that it is impossible to envision life without it. With photography, we can peer into countless aspects of life and see in startling detail that which often escapes our vision.

Wood engravings, on the other hand, represent a slower, dreamier time when reality was presented as scenes from the imagination. They may be less accurate, less clear than photography, but even today their ancient appeal remains undiminished.

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