William Blake — artist of apocalypse
William Blake was a classic poet, a print artist of incredible technique, a painter of endless imagination, and a visionary beyond his time. Earlier this year Tate Britain exhibited a massive collection of his prolific work and we couldn’t wait to feature it here on wonder | wander | world.
Blake’s work is a stunning mix of mythological, medieval, and modern vision. His art has a lasting power that influenced writers, other artists, designers and filmmakers across the centuries. People see a wealth of meaning in his work, whether hopeful, apocalyptic, beautiful or hellish.
Part of his ability to draw people into his vision seems to have come simply from his amazing mastery of drawing. With the lightest, easiest lines he could capture the essence of his subject and fill it with a compelling life.
Blake was also a skilled engraver and printer who produced many books. Often he wrote, designed and engraved them himself.
Many of these books, including hisSongs of Innocence and Experience, were small enough to fit in one hand, making their detail all the more amazing. His famous illustration of his poem ‘The Tyger’ is smaller than a postcard!
Inside these margins he managed to fit some wonderful detail and expression. The books were like the tiny doors in Alice in Wonderland that opened a glimpse into incredible worlds.
His sense of composition and mastery of printing techniques was second to none. He invented an experimental monotype method that combined printing with watercolour painting, producing rich textures with a handmade quality.
He designed and engraved many books for other writers, including pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
His America: A Prophecy traces the theme of revolution, tyranny and freedom from oppression through allegory and graphic symbolism.
William Blake’s true longevity lies in his otherworldly visions. Blake’s paintings reveal how deeply he thought of the lives that lay beyond his own reality.
His spiritual beings veer wildly from ethereal glory to terrifying aspect, his environments from brutal darkness to illuminated beauty.
His art for Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s trilogy Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso describe a descent from light into the pits of despair and then climbing back up again — a profound allegory of humankind.
The exhibition called Blake a universal artist, with a reach beyond his time and experience. It was an honour and a pleasure to visit the worlds of his interior life.
Originally published at http://woaworld.blogspot.com.
