Wardell Milan’s large-scale prints are complex, multi-layered compositions that combine a myriad of etching techniques with linocuts and woodcuts. They depict human bodies immersed in arcadian landscapes, which were drawn on copper plates with etching needles, brushes and acid, interspersed with silvery blossoms which were printed from woodblocks and linoleum. They offer an almost utopian counterproposal to Wardell Milan’s previous etchings, which referred to the political and social reality of the United States with explicit and at times brutal honesty.
For all their serenity, the etchings still present the human body as fundamentally political: his protagonists interact not through words, but through body language and touch; they seem removed from societal power struggles, but they still negotiate social relationships through sexual and spiritual intimacy.
Milan carefully planned and executed the individual pictorial elements with copper, wood, and linoleum. However, he deliberately delayed decisions regarding the overall compositions until the individual printing plates were assembled for proofing. He thus combines the signature technical precision of his work on copper plates with the intuitive feel for the construction of multi-layered pictorial spaces, which he developed through his practice in the medium of collage.
He darts his tongue out of his tingling lips, 2023
€8.228
- Print technique
- Aquatint Burnishing Drypoint Line etching Linocut Soft ground etching Spit bite aquatint Water bite aquatint Woodcut on Hahnemühle Bütten 350g
Paper size 116.5 x 144 cm – Plate size 99 x 126 cm
- Edition
- Edition of 16
- Printer
- Printed by Mette Ulstrup, Thomas Castenschiold Dehlholm, Thomas Jennions
- Publisher
- Published by BORCH Editions
- Signed by:
- Signed and numbered by the artist
- Registration no
- ID: WaM 23 002-1
Lovers, taking in the air, 2023
€8.228
- Print technique
- Aquatint Burnishing Drypoint Line etching Open bite Soft ground etching Spit bite aquatint Water bite aquatint on Hahnemühle Bütten 350g
Paper size 144 x 116.5 cm – Plate size 126 x 99 cm
- Edition
- Edition of 16
- Printer
- Printed by Mette Ulstrup, Thomas Castenschiold Dehlholm, Thomas Jennions
- Publisher
- Published by BORCH Editions
- Signed by:
- Signed and numbered by the artist
- Registration no
- ID: WaM 23 001-1
Giovanni and his erotic spirits, 2024
€8.228
- Print technique
- Burnishing Line etching Soap ground aquatint Soft ground etching Spit bite aquatint Sugar lift aquatint Water bite aquatint Woodcut on Hahnemühle Bütten 350g
Paper size 116.5 x 144 cm – Plate size 99 x 126.5 cm
- Edition
- Edition of 16
- Printer
- Printed by Thomas Jennions
- Publisher
- Published by BORCH Editions
- Signed by:
- Signed and numbered by the artist
- Registration no
- ID: WaM 24 001-1
Giovanni and his erotic spirits, 2024
€8.228
- Print technique
- Burnishing Line etching Soap ground aquatint Soft ground etching Spit bite aquatint Sugar lift aquatint Water bite aquatint Woodcut on Hahnemühle Bütten 350g
Paper size 116.5 x 144 cm – Plate size 99 x 126.5 cm
- Edition
- Edition of 16
- Printer
- Printed by Thomas Jennions
- Publisher
- Published by BORCH Editions
- Signed by:
- Signed and numbered by the artist
- Registration no
- ID: WaM 24 001-1