The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

I return once again to Durer for a piece of work which seems to say so much more to us now than it ever did.

Above left: Durer's wood engraving. Above right: My 2020 linocut.

By Albrecht Dürer - This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery's Open Access Policy., CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81632427

In the middle of a pandemic, amidst the pain and anger that erupted as a result of the George Floyd murder, it is hard to make art that captures this point in time. Yet, The symbolism of the Four Horsemen seems perfectly suited to these imperfect times. I previously reworked  Durer's engraving The Knight, Death, and the Devil in 2018-19. You can read about it by following the link:

https://www.academia.edu/37982903/Albrecht_Durers_The_Knight_Death_and_the_Devil._A_2018_reinterpretation_by_G._Sfougaras._.pdf

In the case of that prior piece, I changed the emotional landscape by incorporating elements from our shared tragic history. The Knight was retained as a symbol of European and Arian colonial aspirations, but Death and the Devil were transformed and linked to recent human tragedies perpetrated by wars and interethnic violence.

My lino plate in the process of being engraved.

The Four Horsemen.

I decided to create a detailed lino relief print directly from the original engraving, which means copying large sections almost line for line. As with the previous piece, I wanted to explore the iconography and symbolism, and to include contemporary additions.  The Four Horsemen and its meaning have been analyzed in great detail by many others. Here is a link with additional signposting if you wish to explore that piece further.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse

The result of working on this piece, particularly in terms of the practicalities of following Durer's lines was fascinating. It was humbling to attempt to imitate  Durer's skillful drawing and the transfer from drawing into the engraving. His mastery of 'binary values' printing was clearly unsurpassable; the assumed limitations of black and white are in his hands a constant source of invention, rather than restricting the way he gave shape and volume to forms. There are significant differences between engraving wood as used in the original and in my case, linoleum.  I used grey lino which is constructed of linseed oil and cork and backed with hessian. This material is much easier to carve than wood, but does not cut as accurately and has a tendency to break off easily. It accommodates larger cuts well, but fine detail is difficult as the structure simply does not support thin raised areas.


The main observations I would make is that the hands that drew and carved this work, (far smaller in scale than mine, possibly 30x20 cm instead of 70 x 50)  had been trained differently.  They betray a lifetime of practice, accuracy, and precision based on the study of the human figure and other subject matter, such as the horses. We know for instance that Durer had worked from sculptures of horses in Rome and had even copied Leonardo Da Vinci's sketches. I make this point as an addition to the obvious genius of Durer, to which I, indeed very few, if any, cannot hold a candle.  The cuts, confident draftsmanship and the resulting movement are exceptional. Even the areas that I believe did not interest him as much, (the dragon for instance) exude this mastery and the maker's background in academic drawing and observation.  The consensus is that Dürer cut the blocks himself for his early works including 'The Ship of Fools' until he could train professional woodcutters to reach the level he had achieved, which was worlds beyond anything that had been achieved  up to that time in terms of subtlety, fineness of line, density, etc. [1]

The work is very different in execution to the Knight engraving. The marks, determined by the surface of the printing plate, which in this case was wood, not metal, create another dynamic and pose different demands on Durer or his engravers both technically, and in terms of visualizing the effect of working in a negative subtractive way. It is less detailed work, but incredibly complex and fluid. One has to look at his confident treatment of the horses and the folds of the fabric, if in any doubt that here is a true master of his art and one that remains unsurpassable in the art of creating images that translate into powerful engravings. I am not even sure if Durer or his employees used magnification in drawing directly on the plates or in engraving at any time, but it is impressive to reflect on the size of the marks and the size of the original printing plates. 

I chose the theme and this work of the Four Horsemen because we are living in intensely unpredictable times.  Poverty, war, human rights abuses, the pandemic, and racism, so starkly exposed by the death of George Floyd, all appear to loom in our shared consciousness, somehow larger than ever.    The main differences in my 'copy' are circled in the image below.  I go on in the remainder of this article to describe in detail the additions and changes.

Schematic 

New elements and changes encircled. 

1. The Black Angel: 

My version (plate followed by printed version detail)

Durer's angel.

If you type 'black angel' into Google the results are starkly different from the outcomes when 'white angel' or just 'angel' are typed in. The former gets the Gothic and 'fallen angel' type, the latter the typical angelic forms we are familiar with. My angel is black.  It is not the first time I have done this. Back in 1983(!) when I was commissioned to make panels for a music hall conversion, I painted five of the 10 panels as black angels/cherubs. It was startling to me then as it is now, that 'good' black angels are missing from the mythological and religious oeuvre.  Try it. Search for the above terms and see how they compare. Maybe things will change and the algorithms will be adjusted to avoid this happening, but for now, this is how things stand.

In the 37 years that have elapsed since that work, little has changed, save for the overt racism that was casually meted out in the street. The black angel 'search' or 'conundrum' reflects the attitudes that still pervade our societies and social media and the real danger black people face from the violence, both passive and overt.  I recommend to readers of this blog that feel they would like further information and analysis of racism and its antecedents to read David Olusoga's Black and British- A Forgotten History [2]. 

I was immediately moved by the following passage in the book's preface.  It is a simple statement within a book that is replete with the generational trauma and accounts of far greater violence against black people.  It is however it is the common-or-garden tone, the inescapable truth of it, (which I also as a foreigner in the 1970s and 80s experienced) that reminded me of the many situations where small and big aggressive acts came my way.

"Almost every black or mixed-race person of my generation has a story of racial violence to tell.  These stories range from humiliation to hospitalization.  They are raw, visceral, highly personal, and rarely shared beyond family circles.  This oral history of twentieth-century racial violence has never been collected or collated, but it is there and it is shocking."

( David Olusoga is of dual African/European heritage and grew up in 1980s Britain)

2  The wrong George Floyd.

The very bottom of the linocut closes the narrative with the 'wrong George Floyd'.  The link that follows this segment will take you to the BBC article.  It was in the midst of the excruciating, public killing of George Floyd that the article appeared.  The BBC had taken an image directly from the funeral presentation montage, which wrongly depicted the New York Jets player George Floyd.  I used this image for two reasons.  Firstly, I was reluctant to include the deceased's face. It did not sit comfortably at the time, seeming obscene to me to do so. Secondly, I was reflecting on the error that resulted in the BBC using the one wrong image that happened to appear in the funeral presentation. There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this minor aside, but I leave it for the reader to consider this detail.  The positioning of the perpetrator is exactly as it appears on the Durer original print.  I have however adjusted the face for reasons that again, viewers again can reflect upon.  This is how the original print and my version depict this segment below:

                           Above left: Durer's wood engraving. Above right: My 2020 linocut.


The wrong photograph of the deceased: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52992621

3. The Pandemic 

It would probably be impossible at this time not to have one's work affected by the current global health crisis.  Even the artists who are making work that is seemingly thematically unaltered, or whose work references a different time and place, must surely feel the pressures of existing in an altered world. Much could be said about the impact of the pandemic and the resulting uncertainty and the loss that most of the world is experiencing.  Indeed, so much has already been said, written, and commented upon.  I personally have felt the absence of my grown-up daughters, very keenly.  I have also felt my own absence as a protective father, brother, or uncle. I cannot be there for any of my distanced loved ones in a physical sense.  If they became ill, I could not nurse them or support them as I would under 'normal' circumstances.  It is this sense of powerlessness that hurts me more than the fear for my own health. 

The idea of godly intervention has always been a cornerstone of my upbringing, and it has always silently comforted me when things have been difficult. It is with some incredulity at times that I reflect back as to how this faith sustained me when all else seemed impossible. I have changed drastically in terms of faith, but the idea of religion remains a place of reflection for me and of unanswered questions.  Over the decades, slowly, and imperceptibly, even to me, I have let go of many of the rituals and observances of the Orthodox Christianity of my childhood.  I watched with trepidation the Easter Resurrection Service at the Patriarchate in Istanbul, where the Greek Church still maintains a presence and in many peoples' eyes a spiritual centre. This dedication to religion and the instructions of some religious leaders to carry on as if nothing was wrong was the inspiration for the image that depicts the Papal figure. In Durer's engraving, he is being devoured by a Dragon. In mine, he is being consumed by a stylized form of the Corona Virus.  The role of religion in the current era is discussed in countless articles, as in the following opinion by Father Martin is a Jesuit priest and an author in the New York Times: 

The question is essentially the same that people ask when a hurricane wipes out hundreds of lives or when a single child dies from cancer. It is called the “problem of suffering,” “the mystery of evil” or the “theodicy,” and it’s a question that saints and theologians have grappled with for millenniums. The question of “natural” suffering (from illnesses or natural disasters) differs from that of “moral evil” in which suffering flows from the actions of individuals[4]

Opposite the papal figure, the man, now in an ICU respirator and the woman in the all-too-familiar face mask are collapsing in the onslaught of the horsemen.  The emaciated figure of hunger in Durer's engraving is now the figure of death, his trident transformed into a sickle. Sculls are scattered in the near foreground, as the number of victims increases daily.

"In the wake of Death’s trampling hooves, a monstrous, fanged reptilian creature noshes on the mitre of a Bishop, a prefiguration, perhaps, of the imminence of the Protestant Reformation that would sweep across northern Europe in opposition to the excesses of the church and papacy.
In this context, the thundering hooves of the horses could presage religious reform (Dürer’s Four Apostles, painted for Nuremberg’s town hall, bears inscriptions from the texts of Martin Luther), although Luther himself did not approve of the visionary nature of Revelation, declaring it, “neither apostolic nor prophetic.”
Dr. Sally Hickson [3]


4. 'Dolet Undique'

Higher up in my version of the print, the rider on the white horse carries a globe instead of the bow and arrow,  representing our planet. Above in Latin, the inscription 'Dolet Undique' ('Pain Everywhere' or 'Everything Hurts' ) echoes George Floyds last words before his death but also suggests that we are living at a time when humanity has much to reflect on, including the catastrophic destruction of our ecosystems and ultimately our planet. As in the text of revelation chapter 6, humanity set out to conquer and in so doing is destroying everything that matters.

Revelation 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.


5. Minor additions. 
There are two minor changes in the new version, encircled in red in the above schematic. What do you think they signify?

Video of the work being printed in my home studio. 

Proofing the print. 

Artists throughout the ages have referenced works by others. Just as in academic scholarship, practitioners' knowledge base is built upon previous research, materials, and efforts. There is a certain comfort, I would even go as far as to call it 'magic'  in finding another artist's work that speaks to us as makers, as artists. In some respects, I personally consider wanting to handle another person's work and in some way copy/reinterpret/analyse it,  an act of letting go of the ego.  You move from being the protagonist to being the interpreter, the support act, or whatever other analogy sits comfortably. In Drama practice, there is a  warm-up trust game or exercise, where you intentionally fall backward and your fellow actors catch you. I like to compare the act of handling another artist's work to that act of trust, of letting go and falling.  Beyond the artificiality of 'trust games,' of course, there is real life. Here, letting go is a much less predictable event. Choosing the one that will catch you when you let go is a life-long challenge.  Similarly perhaps choosing which artist's work we believe in is ultimately about which artist we trust, admire, or want to emulate. These are my thoughts as I write this piece, but the process of making art and processing it has a way of taking us in unchartered territory, so I look forward to reading this post in a few years' time and nodding with approval or groaning with embarrassment. 

Additional sources and citations.
[1]https://www.masterworksfineart.com/artists/albrecht-durer/engravings
[2] Black and British: a Forgotten History, by David Olusoga. Publisher: London: Macmillan, 2016.
[3]https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern/durer/a/drer-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse