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Augusto (or Avgust) Cernigoj was born in Trieste in 1898, of Slovenian parentage. He studied at the Fine Art Academy of Bologna, and also at the Bauhaus, where he was the only Italian student. Augusto Cernigoj worked as a teacher at the Slovenian school in Trieste. The two works below were contributed to Documenti d'arte d'oggi, the journal of the Movimento Arte Concreta, in 1958. By happenstance, my copies have been hand-signed by Cernigoj in pen at the bottom right. Usual copies are unsigned. Augusto Cernigoj Untitled woodcut, 1958 Augusto Cernigoj Untitled lithograph, 1958 The influence of Hans Arp can be seen in the lithograph, which is a very successful and balanced composition, in my view. Although he was a well-respected artist, the art of Cernigoj has only been truly appreciated after his death in 1985. More than 1400 pieces are gathered in the Galleria di Avgust Cernigoj in Lipizza.

The long-lived artist and art critic Gillo Dorfles was born in Trieste in 1910, and in 2013 was still able to be actively involved in designing the Tibetan Pavilion for the 55th Venice Biennale. Gillo Dorfles His chief period as an active artist spanned essentially the life of the influential abstract movement he co-founded, MAC, the Movimento Arte Concreta. MAC was founded by Gillo Dorfles, Atanasio Soldati, Bruno Munari, and Gianni Monnet in 1948, and disbanded in 1958 after the premature death of Monnet. Writing in the New York Times in 1955, when Dorfles was showing a group of monotypes at the Wittenborn Gallery, D. Ashton notes that, "In most of his prints, the emphasis is on a personal calligraphy that can be read for meaning, like handwriting. . . At times the rhythmic interplay of line resembles the intricate symbolic designs on ancient oriental bronzes. In his delicacy of color and the emphasis on integral rhythms, Dorfles achieves a lyrical quality." These comments

Bruno Munari, about whom there is a very interesting article here relating to a 2002 exhibition at the Milan Dobe� Museum, was one of the four founders of MAC, the Movimento Arte Concreta, an Italian abstract art movement that flourished from 1948-1958. Born in Milan in 1907, Munari enjoyed a long career of restless creativity. In the late 1920s and the 1930s Bruno Munari was a member of Marinetti's Futurist movement, from which he disassociated himself after WWII, because of Futurism's links with fascism. Bruno Munari was a pioneer of installation art, mobile and kinetic art, photocopy art and all kinds of inventive creations such as his useless machines and unreadable books. Among his most charming creations are his "sculture da viaggio" - portable sculptures cut out of card that can be folded for travel. One of these was included in the final publication of MAC/Espace, the 1958 volume of Documenti d'arte d'oggi. Beautifully simple, and simply beautiful. Bru

What critical attention that has been focused on the Movimento Arte Concreta has been on the male artists who formed the overwhelming majority of the members of MAC. So I thought before I turned my attention to the men I would post about the three women who contributed original art to Documenti d'arte d'oggi. Simonetta Vigevani Jung (1917-2005) The first of these is Simonetta Vigevani Jung. She was born Simonetta Irene Jung in Palermo, Sicily in 1917. She first exhibited in Milan in 1955, and in New York the following year at the Duveen-Graham Gallery. Her work is distinguished by its dynamic forms and vivid colours - though colour is not an essential element of her art, as two cool black-and-white studies in line and form go to show. I have to say I personally prefer the colour work, with its enticing sense of cosmic rhythm. Writing of her "Light Forms" (Forme Luce) paintings of 1955 (to which the first six of my lithographs are closely related), Albert Duveen remark

Concrete Art is a term applied to various abstract art movements. The term was coined by Theo van Doesburg in his 1930 Manifesto of Concrete Art. Van Doesburg's insistence that art should be formed from the "concrete" elements of form and colour without reference to the physical world was championed by the Swiss artist Max Bill, a former student of Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus. In the late 1940s and the 1950s two groups influenced by Bill flourished in France and Italy: Groupe Espace and MAC, the Movimento Arte Concreta. The two groups exhibited in combination in Italy as Gruppo Espace. Poster for the 1954-1955 Gruppo Espace exhibition in Milan, and the verso with woodcuts by Enrico Bordoni (1904-1969) and Silvano Bozzolini (1911-1998) MAC was formed in 1948 by four Italian artists: Atanasio Soldati, Gillo Dorfles, Bruno Munari, and Gianni Monnet. It disbanded in 1958, following the premature death of Gianni Monnet at the age of 46.   Besides collecti

The elegant turn-of-the-century lady, dressed in the height of fashion, has a sad story to tell. Although this is just speculation on my part, I believe the model is Louise Victoria Einschlag, the wife of the artist Eduard David Einschlag, whose signature is etched in the plate top right, along with the date '03. The etching was published the following year by the Leipzig art revue Zeitschrift f�r Bildende Kunst. Eduard David Einschlag, Damenbildnis Etching with aquatint, 1903 Eduard David Einschlag was born in Leipzig in 1879, into a Jewish family. He studied at the fine art Academies of Leipzig, Munich (where he learned etching from Peter Halm), and Berlin, returning to Leipzig to live and work in 1910. Eduard Einschlag is known for his paintings and for his masterly etchings in a post-Impressionist style. In 1938 Eduard and Louise Victoria Einschlag were deported by the Nazis, and both were murdered at the Treblinka extermination camp, sometime around 1942.

First of all - apologies to all readers of this blog for the long time-lapse. Life has been difficult, and I was simply unable to keep going. But I hope this new post will be the first of many - perhaps one a month, not one a day like some manic bloggers! Why have almost none of us ever heard of Willem Linneg, Junior, and why do I say he was born out of his time? Of course, he lived through the very same days and years as anyone else born in 1842 who died in 1890. Not a long life - he died aged 48 - but a very productive one. A great many paintings, and  123 listed etchings, of which I have 4 to share with you. But Monet was born in 1840, Renoir in 1841, Pissarro in 1830. Does Willem Linnig, Junior, show any sign of having heard of any of these artists? No, he does not. He looks back - back to the Flemish Golden Age, and back to the French artists of the 18th-century. So no wonder he has fallen through the cracks of art history. Yet I am intrigued by his work, and hope you will be too.