William Blake: Poetry and Old Testament visions make a perfect holiday exhibition

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind (1896)

William Blake (1757–1827) combined the advantages of the outsider artist with those of the successful pro. Driven by an intense, spiritually charged imagination, which gave his art a sense of naïve purity and esoteric uniqueness, he also had the high-level artistic skills to realize his visions in precise and dynamic compositions.

"Prints by William Blake," at the National Museum of Western Art, presents some of the artist's copperplate prints on such classic themes as The Book of Job, from the Old Testament, and Dante's Divine Comedy, replete with its visions of Hell.

Sometimes considered a precursor to the British Romantic movement, Blake's uniqueness defied his inclusion in any movement. Fusing poetry with visual imagery, and emphasizing linear expression and detail, his prints construct a magical, symbolic universe where each dot and line seems heavy with significance and portent.

For Blake detail was everything. He detested the soft, unfinished style of painting favored by successful contemporaries like Sir Joshua Reynolds. "To generalize is to be an idiot; to particularize is the alone distinction of merit," he once wrote with the fervor of the true otaku.

Like many great artists, he was not fully appreciated during his lifetime, but driven by an overwhelming creative urge, he stuck doggedly to the aesthetic ideals which have enshrined his legacy.

The relative neglect he suffered during his career may have inclined him to the Biblical tale of Job, a man who is afflicted with every kind of misfortune by God in order to demonstrate his faith. In a similar way, Blake perhaps felt that God was testing him by denying him the success his talent so obviously merited. This adds an extra poignancy to the works from this series.

The exhibition, which is sourced from the National Museum of Western Art's own collection, includes a few dozen of Blake's delightfully detailed prints, along with examples by the Renaissance printmakers he admired, such as the German artist Albrecht Dürer and the Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi. The religious and traditional aspects of this exhibition make it a perfect fit for the holiday season.

C.B.Liddell
Metropolis
6th December, 2011