Jan Montyn - Color etching on paper, Title, Manila - Framed - Sold

Jan Montyn (actually: Montijn) (Oudewater, November 13, 1924 – Amsterdam, August 10, 2015) was a Dutch painter, draftsman, graphic artist, and poet. His work is held in museums including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Jan Montyn (Oudewater, 1924 - 2015)
Stylistically, Montyn's work defies categorization within a specific visual art movement. Initially, he worked very traditionally and figuratively, but in the early 1960s, he adopted a stylized, often abstract visual language replete with personal signs and symbols. He uses printmaking not solely as a technique for reproduction, but as a medium for developing a distinctive style and idiom. His first experiments with etching were executed without color, but gradually, color became an essential element of his work. Color, form, line, and content were monumentally combined into an abstract visual language. On zinc plates, Montyn works with mixed etching techniques such as drypoint, aquatint, and taille douche. He invented the method of printing multiple etching plates on a single large plate. Montyn always prints his prints himself in small editions. The primary theme in his work is the landscape, as the projection of human emotion. Montyn, as it were, meditates on the landscape. His connection to the landscape and the earth is evident, among other things, in his preference for the color umber, which, for him, symbolizes the earth and everything related to it. Long-distance travel, particularly to Southeast Asia, is a significant source of inspiration for his work. He maintains more or less permanent residences in the south of France, Thailand, and the Netherlands.