Melencholia II, III, IV (2021)

Melencholia. Didier Mutel & Nicolas Bardey. Atelier Didier Mutel. Orchamps, 2021.

An undisputed icon in the world of printmaking, Dürer’s print has created an extraordinary labyrinth of contradictory understandings, and Melencholia I is the subject of infinite interpretations. These contradictory interpretations help to accentuate the enigmatic character of the engraving. Research on Melencholia I has led to a nearly inexhaustible mass of documents. However, no single satisfactory interpretation has followed.

In 2018, the engraver Didier Mutel and the graphic designer Nicolas Bardey began work on Melencholia II, III, and IV, a collaborative response to Dürer’s print, which they present here in a series that combines engraving and serigraphy.

Melencholia II, III, and IV emerges from each artist’s personal point of view; simultaneously the quest for a new interpretation of an emblematic and iconic work, but also a collaboration that spans several eras, merging two graphic languages into a single space. A central point of their investigation is how digital technology represents and relates to works of the past.

The fully illustrated description is here: Melencholia-Didier Mutel