About The Artist:
Gatja Helgart Rothe
G.H. Rothe is renowned as master of the mezzotint and as one of the world's greatest living artists. She combines technical mastery with inspired imagination. She was born in 1935 in Beuthen, Germany (ceded to Poland in 1945) and her studies in art history, human anatomy, goldsmithing and extensive drawing culminated in her discovery of the mezzotint technique. Impelled to revive this most difficult technique of printmaking led to an invention...
view artist page
About The Medium:
Etching
The printing process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In traditional pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where they want a line to appear in the finished piece, exposing the bare metal. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print.