Studio: international art (76.1919)

The Etchings of Georges Goto

THE ETCHINGS OF GEORGES GOBO
BY M. VALOTAIRE.

RESPECTING the art of etching, Sey-
mour Haden wrote : "I give only a
secondary place to technical su-
periority ; we should use the needle
like a painter, not like an engraver ; like a poet,
not an artisan. . . . The needle becomes a live
interpreter, and the simple stroke an intelligent
expression." This authoritative statement has
not been sufficiently understood ; even to-day,
and -even in original etching, too many artists
think too much about technique, have too much
regard for the process which shall enable them to
obtain effect; the result being that in judging
the value of their works, in which art gives place
to metier, one cannot say that they are beautiful,

but only that they are well done. This applies
to the majority ; but one is glad to note the
development of certain artists of original talent,
for whom the eau-forte is no more than a means of
expression, like any other, to be used according
to circumstances, with a thorough understanding
of its essential virtues.

This is the case with Georges Gobo. who
strives to express his thoughts in oils, in pastel,
in fusain, as well as in the etched plate. If his
full capacity is revealed chiefly in his work as
painter-engraver, this is due, in the first place, to
the fact that in the hard school of experience
he has come to assimilate the technique of the
etching so completely as to be able to use it with
perfect ease ; also, and above all, because he
knows how to speak therein a language as
living, as bold, as spontaneous as anything

' LES TANNEURS '

BY GEORGES GOBO
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