Art Calendar – Current Exhibitions in Germany

Most people know it as flooring; only a few as printing block. In 1863 the English chemist Frederick Walton produced the very first piece of linoleum out of linseed oil, powered cork and resins. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was totally hip as flooring with architects such as Henry van de Velde and Walter Gropius. And artists too discovered the material for their purposes. Prints can be produced much more simply with linoleum than with woodcuts. Gabriele Münter, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso carved their motifs in the soft material and printed them on paper with lino plates covered with paint.

Since 1989, the city of Bietigheim-Bissingen in Baden-Württemberg has bestowed a graphics prize every three years. Selected are linocuts of international artists. In 2013 the jury chose Cees Andriessen, Wolfgang Pilz and Volkhardt Müller as the winners. Now a selection of about 500 entries may be seen in the Bietigheim-Bissingen Municipal Art Gallery under the title Linolschnitt heute (i.e., Linocuts Today). Who is the generous sponsor of the competition? A linoleum factory of course.