Grattage (literally "scratching", "scraping") is a technique in
surrealist painting which consists of "scratching" fresh paint with a sharp blade.
In this technique, one typically attempts to scratch and remove the chromatic pigment spread on a prepared support (the canvas or other material) in order to move the surface and make it dynamic. Incorporate the technique of grattage in the painting in order to create a strong sense of texture or
pattern on the surface of the picture plane.
This technique was used by
Max Ernst,
Joan Miró, and later by
informal artists.
Technique and materials
In this
pictorial technique, in addition to the use of brushes and spatulas, the artist experiments with common tools and everyday objects, such as sponges, steel brushes, stilettos, scalpels, tips, razor blades, and small blocks of metal.
In grattage various common tools scrape wet paint to simulate natural patterns or to create new ones. The scratches created bring out the colors of the underlying pictorial layers and create chromatic contrasts. In the ''grattages'', the scraping of the surface layers of paint over an assortment of objects serves to stimulate the mind to engage itself in the automatic process of “discovering” images lying hidden within its innermost recesses.
Artists
Max Ernst rediscovered the
frottage technique (based on the
rubbing principle); in 1927 he transposed this
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
technique - generally applied to paper - to
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
, thus creating the grattage process. Grattage allowed Max Ernst to free the creative forces full of suggestions and evocations, less theoretical and more
unconscious and spontaneous.
This technique was refined by the artist
Hans Hartung; through this process he reaches the sublimation of his typical pictorial gestures, creating a new sign alphabet relying on pointed tools, suitably modified brushes, and rollers.
In figurative monochrome neo-grattage
MatWay further develops the technique in so-called ''Engraved Paintings''.
''Maerk magtens spil - Matvey Slavin''
Engraved Paintings. Article by Inge Schjødt. Retrieved October 7, 2022
See also
* Art movement
* Frottage (art)
* List of art techniques
* Surrealist techniques
Surrealism in art, poetry, and literature uses numerous techniques and games to provide inspiration. Many of these are said to free imagination by producing a creative process free of conscious control. The importance of the Unconscious mind, u ...
* Surrealism
References
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Surrealist techniques
Painting techniques