Wolfgang Buchta, Vienna, Austria

Beyond the Wall of Sleep, 2007

H.P. Lovecraft

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
—William Shakespeare



Wolfgang Buchta’s Beyond the Wall of Sleep is the epitome of a synthesis between aesthetic beauty and elegant draftsmanship. There is no intaglio artist & image-maker as skilled as Buchta. He is a master.



Beyond the Wall of Sleep, 2007 is the artist’s triumph. These 48 pages flow effortlessly with its hand-brushed text and figurative-landscape imagery. Each scape is between two to four passes of the press, two to four plates—two to four colors. Buchta is the heir apparent to Vienna’s Secession Movement—a definite continuation of the tradition Egon Shiele and Gustav Klimt. It is upheld in this work’s vibrant illumination. This book glows.



Buchta’s focus on the tradition of the gothic fiction from New England started with his previous work with Edgar Alan Poe’s Tell Tale Heart in 2002. What does this master of ink & pressure from Vienna have in common with these dark, yet obsessive, elders of horror? It is exactly that—all three of these men have had a repetitive perfectionism their respective arts.



Buchta lives a simple life in Vienna. He works in his studio everyday from nine to five like clockwork. He says he is a monk as he works on the top floor in the antique washroom turned atelier. His practice is always revision and refinement—a constant creation. There is always a pen in his hand & it’s moving. The copper plates for this project, Buchta made over a two year period. The first eight months of 2007, he printed Sleep in half of its edition. The paper was specifically designed by Gangolf Ulbricht—the master papermaker of Europe—for this project. It was bound in Vienna by Stephen Ortbauer. The book lays flat when opened.



Buchta’s figures depict Lovecraft’s declaration of the state of freedom is within oneself. This derives out of his time period and specific constructs such as New England’s own Puritanism. Lovecraft’s stories always proclaim that the individual can only experience one’s TRUTH through his own insanity. This obsession with man’s interior world is magnified through Buchta’s landscapes. These scenescapes have created a visual space for Lovecraft’s OTHER, or rather, his later Chthulu Mythos. Both this artist and this author crave a connection to another world. This is seen, by the viewer, directly by one’s personal experience through Buchta’s masterpiece. This Sleep is therefore essential for all Lovecraft followers. And, therefore its superiority is indeed timeless.

Collections:
Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany
The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA, USA
German National Library, Leipzig, Germany
Herzog August Library, Wolfenbuttel, Germany
Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA
The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, MN
New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA
Scripps College, Claremont, CA, USA

Edition of 30 and 2 AP’s,
48 pages, each page used 2–5 plates,
brushed text, etching, aquatint, open-bite,
laquer, — 4 steps.
All artwork and printing by Wolfgang Buchta.
Custom made age resistant cotton rag paper
by Gangolf Ulbricht, Berlin
Binder: Stephen Ortbauer, Vienna

Download Buchta's Lovecraft's complete colophon here.

Unwegsame Gebiete V,
(Uncharted Territories, State #5)

2002, copy #5 of an edition of seven. The final state of an aquatint printed book project that spans a decade.



The book is without question one of the most outstanding examples of fine printed book of the 21st century.

With writing by Dylan Thomas.



Download the PDF of Buchta's recent retrospective exhibit about the Uncharted Territories project at the German National Library in Leipzig - by clicking here

Out of Print!

Visit Buchta's website!!

This page is maintained by Marshall Weber.