A seemingly effortless gesture is choreographed into an emptied field
Art in Print, 2016
by Faye Hirsch, from Volume 5, Number 6
Edition Review
Steadily building a notable oeuvre in prints, the New York-based artist Jill Moser has been working in various mediums at studios around the city and beyond over the past five years. Whether large screen prints or small etchings, her abstract prints are recognizable in the finesse with which a seemingly effortless gesture is choreographed into an emptied field. Loser’s marks veritably breeze into view, full of light and air. Three intaglios made late last winter at Wingate Studio in New Hampshire, during what proprietors Peter Pettengill describes as “pouring snow,” are among Moser’s most lovely. Over flats of color aquatint, Moser composed a wide, porous, brushstroke-like gesture in soap ground. Pettengill reports the work as deceptive in its look of spontaneity. In fact, Moser cannily manipulated the soap medium, allowing it to set, thick and thin, so that in the second plate, the “gesture” is in fact a negative activating the entire field. Over this she printed a third plate in spit bite with a more saturated color. The palette is lush, with one in pink and reds, a second in yellow and silver, and a third in violet and silver. Maybe it was the snowy days, but there prints feel hushed and personal, with the stroke dominating the small square format while remaining weightless- an admirable feat.
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