CPC Small Print Show: Anatole Upart

This blog is part of a series of interviews of participating artists / printmakers in the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Small Print Show.

Anatole Upart, born in Minsk, Belarus, is a printmaker, painter, designer, and illustrator residing in Chicago. He started art school from an early age in Minsk and then emigrated to the US to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study printmaking. In addition to painting and printmaking, for the past eight years, he has focused on lamp and furniture design. His works are in private collections in the US, Belarus, Israel, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany. He reveals that his artistic influences have been "misplaced objects around me and by observing the ones I love."

Anatole Upart. On The Sidewalk. 2008.
Etching, aquatint, 6" x 9".

"I do etching, woodcut and occasionally lithography. The techniques are pretty traditional and conservative: chine-collé, line etching, aquatint, monotype, wood engraving, and chiaroscuro woodcut. I prefer a closer work with plates (copper or wood), drawing directly on them, and slowly building the image through differently timed etches, continuously proofing to see the progress. I am interested in avoiding a style for the sake of a method -- a direct observation, a form of witnessing reality."

Anatole Upart. Her Robe.
2008. Etching, 9" x 4".

In addition to CPC shows, Anatole's exhibitions include: Impressions: Contemporary Illinois Printmakers and Just Say No! Chicago Artists Against The War, The Chicago Athenaeum, Schaumburg, IL, 2003; Artists on the Belarusian Independence Day, St. George Belarusian Church, Chicago, 2002; SPECTRUM: Contemporary Art of Chicago, The Chicago Athenaeum at Schaumburg, IL; Anatole Upart and Eva Panek, paintings and prints, 1418 N. North Park, Chicago, 2001; Land Beneath White Wings: Belarusian Artists in Chicago, The Chicago Athenaeum at Schaumburg, IL, 2001; Decade of Printmaking, Bellow Lowndes Fine Art, Chicago, 2000.

Anatole Upart. April's Shoes. 2008. Etching, 6" x 9".

For more information on Anatole and his art, go to http://smugglersource.blogspot.com/. He can be contacted at anatole@gmail.com.