Artist News
COLOGNE FINE ART Prize 2007 – Gert and Uwe Tobias win 10,000 €
This year, the COLOGNE FINE ART Prize is being awarded by the Bundesverband Deutscher Galerien und Editionen (Federal Association of German Galleries and Editions – BVDG) in collaboration with the Koelnmesse (Cologne Exhibition Centre) for the first time.
The awards ceremony is due to take place on Tuesday, 30th October 2007 at 7 pm during the first private viewing of the COLOGNE FINE ART exhibition. Dr. Stefan Gronert, Director of the Graphic Collection at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, will be making the honorary speech.
The COLOGNE FINE ART Prize recognises innovative developments in the field of prints, reprographic techniques and limited-edition works. Previous award winners include Dieter Roth, Thomas Bayrle, Astrid Klein, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Schütte and Dieter Krieg.
Twins Gert and Uwe Tobias were born in 1973 in the Romanian city of Braşov. After completing their studies at the Braunschweig University of Art under Walter Dahn, they moved to Cologne where they now share a studio. The youngest ever winners of the COLOGNE FINE ART Prize dedicate their creative efforts to the world’s oldest typographic techniques - the art of xylography, or woodcuts.
In Germany, the technique of woodcarving has enjoyed an eventful, sometimes provocative past. Woodcuts were considered a superior means of artistic expression as early as Dürer's era, and experienced a renaissance in Expressionist works created during the early stages of the 20th century. Significantly, Gert and Uwe Tobias were also awarded this year’s HAP Grieshaber Prize, endorsed by the Stiftung Kunstfonds (the German Kunstfonds Foundation).
Gert and Uwe Tobias have succeeded in redefining the woodcut technique in the truest sense of the word – not merely in terms of the format. The brothers’ skilful interplay of technical expertise and new media results in the creation of extremely complex prints. Each monumental woodcut, some of which constitute up to twenty individual blocks, begins with a small-scale sketch which is subsequently scanned in and processed on the computer screen.
This is followed by the template's complex transfer onto a number of stencils, which are printed per pedes, via the weight of the body, instead of with a traditional printing press. The works’ gradual development during a number of discrete stages creates leeway for communication, corrections and experiments. An inevitable result of the process is that the creation of multiple editions of the works becomes unfeasible – and only two copies of each woodcut can be produced.
A special show featuring selected woodcuts by Gert and Uwe Tobias is being organised for the duration of the COLOGNE FINE ART exhibition to mark the awards ceremony.
For more information and a biography of Gert and Uwe Tobias, please click on the links
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Information on COLOGNE FINE ART:
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