Lars Nyberg
, Swedish, b.1956
Title
High Over Cummen StrandDate2015
MediumDrypoint on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 28.2 × 38.2 cm
Plate: 12.5 × 24 cm
Signedcentre right: Lars Nyberg
Credit LinePresented, 2023
Object numberNGI.2023.65
DescriptionThese prints illustrate Lars Nyberg’s skill as a printmaker, sensitive approach to his subject matter and meticulous use of the drypoint technique. In his own words: ‘To feel and hear the steel needle travelling in the copperplate is This is one of 27 drypoints gifted to the collection by Swedish printmaker Lars Nyberg. The prints depict a variety of subjects: street scenes, winter trees and abstract architectural features. Each image is infused with silence, emptiness and a sense of calm. The Dublin prints were begun while Nyberg was working at Graphic Studio Dublin’s premises at Green Street East in the 1990s. They depict the Dublin docklands (mainly Grand Canal and Spencer Dock) before its redevelopment. Eleven record parts of inner city Dublin including buildings in Parnell Street, Gardiner Street and Mountjoy Square. Five of the prints depict wintry trees and paths in rural Mayo and were inspired by his residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle in 2000. The date noted is the year the plate was finished, but often he began work on a plate many years earlier. He explained his method of working: ‘I made a lot of sketches and took a lot of photos so I could remember details. I never draw or scratch after photos, the idea, the ‘feeling’, will die in a way then. For me, making art involves waiting, I look upon a proof or a drawing, thinking and waiting for the idea, the feeling, to ‘develop’. Taking time for an idea to mature. I always print my copperplates myself and I use a simple steel needle for the drypoint works.’ The story behind the print, in the artist’s own words, was written in February 2024.
2015 marked the 150th anniversary of William Butler Yeats's birth on June 13, 1865. On the occasion of the anniversary, Catherine O´Riordan and Stephen Lawlor SO Fine Art Editions Dublin, curated an exhibition of work by contemporary artists and poets inspired by Yeats's oeuvre. A solander box containing a full set of the prints and a catalogue was produced. Lina and I were invited to contribute, and I produced this work, a larger version of the 2004 print of trees outside Killala called ‘Way Out’. The title of the Yeats poem that inspired me was ‘Red Hanrahan's Song About Ireland’.
Inscriptioncentre right: Lars Nyberg
lower right: beside the road from Ballina to Killala