Celebrating 40 Years of Collaboration | Tal R printed by Julie Dam

On the occasion of BORCH Editions’ 40th anniversary, four of the printmaking studio’s collaborating artists team up with the studio’s master printers to create a series of anniversary prints.

BORCH Editions was founded by Niels Borch Jensen in 1979 and has since established a position as one of the world’s leading printmaking studios and publishers of fine art prints. Master printers Julie Dam and Mette Ulstrup have been with BORCH Editions for more than three decades. Thomas Jennions joined the team in 2015. The printers’ skills and experience have been crucial in establishing sustainable, long term working relationships with internationally renowned artists.

In celebration of the print studio’s 40th anniversary, BORCH Editions are publishing four prints by four artists who have built comprehensive bodies of printed work in collaboration with the printmaking studio. Tal R’s print Lillen, a combination of woodcut and etching, was printed by master printer Julie Dam.

Tal R has been making prints since the mid-1990s, when Niels Borch Jensen first invited him to work in his Copenhagen printmaking studio. Master printer Julie Dam has been working on all his recent print projects.

“The unique thing about working with Tal is that, although he always has a clear direction for his print projects, he is open to the process and the surprises that happen along the way”, Dam explains. “Printmaking is about taking chances, and you never know exactly what the print will look like until it is pulled. Some artists may be frustrated by this element of chance, but Tal has been working with printmaking for many years, and he knows the medium well enough to keep an open mind. He investigates every unexpected outcome for its potential, and sometimes he will continue working on something that was not supposed to happen in the first place.”

In Lillen Tal R depicts a female nude against one of his signature interior backgrounds – two visual elements he has been working with for years. He combines the coarse structures of a woodcut with aquatint, creating a vibrantly coloured print with thick, graphic lines, marrying the female figure and its background into a graphic, complex network of shapes.

TAL R, born 1967 in Tel Aviv, Israel, lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.