Binocular Skull 2

Gerhard Marx was born in 1976. He received his MA in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004, and he lives and works in Cape Town with his artist wife Maja Marx and two daughters. Marx is an artist, theatre director, and filmmaker and has collaborated with a number of like-minded practitioners including William Kentridge, Philip Miller, Maja Marx, Lara Foot Newton and Handspring Puppet Company. In his own practice as a visual artist, Marx works across a number of media, including drawing and printmaking. He has often explored the idea of the broken and collaged image, and his drawings convey a delicacy and attention to fineness of detail that is belied by the massive sculptural works he has made with William Kentridge.

Marx collaborated with Warren Editions in 2014, to produce the two etchings, Binocular Skull 1 and Binocular Skull 2.

The technique used to make the print is hardground etching, this is a way of making fine line work. The best ground for line work is beeswax mixed with asphaltum and gum rosin. The plate can be handled without the ground being accidentally nicked. The plate is degreased, set on a heated surface and the ground, which comes in a ball, is spread onto it and then spread out evenly with a rubber brayer. When the wax cools, the plate is smoked with the flame of tapers. Thereafter, lines can be drawn through the ground with any pointed tool – the traditional one is a pointed metal cylinder called a needle. The resulting print is called a hardground etching. In using hardground, the artist can draw smoothly – all he or she needs to do is break the wax. The acid does the rest. The longer the plate is in the acid the deeper the bite and the stronger the lines will print.