NEGROS MUSEUM - THE REG ZELL PRINT COLLECTION
The German artist and designer Reg Zell bought his first prints in 1964 when he was studying in Rome: 3 woodcuts by Vecellio from 1598, 7 illustrations to Vecchi’s History of the Jewish People from 1620, 4 delightful engravings by Wilhelm Baur and illustrations to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” from 1639. His collection can be characterized as eclectic and random but rich in many ways. The artists came from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy who had travelled all over Europe and treated diverse subjects while using different techniques. The collection begins with a few manuscript pages that show how knowledge was transmitted by scribes with precision and dedication in the Middle Ages. Later acquisitions show how printing emerged in Germany when artists started using movable letters. Thielman Kerver’s ‘Book of Hours’ that appeared in the 1500s is a pivotal period for printing. By adding movable blocks of illustrations to the process, Kerver could permanently produce new editions in different languages. A complex and dynamic industry emerged that opened a wider market with substantial profit. Illustrations engraved or etched on copper plates in the 17th and 18th centuries allowed for a richer artistic expression as well as a higher print-run. Augsburg as a centre for printing is used as an example in a competitive market on a European scale. The collection contains some radical images denouncing poverty and unemployment that appeared in the Paris journal “L’Assiette au Beurre” printed in 1901. The collection also has the last printed edition of “Newsweek”, a copy of “Superwoman” and a special edition of the satiric French magazine “Charlie Hebdo” that appeared after the January 2015 massacre of its editors. The exhibition on the history of printing in the Negros Museum in Bacolod is entertaining, instructive, provocative and hopefully engaging. Progress via the Internet has indeed added many new ways to communicate, but these are at best ephemeral and fleeting. The exhibition of the Zell Collection of Prints shows that the tangible ways of communicating via prints and etchings possess more enduring substance and magic for the present and for the future generations to come.
