File:Lothar Osterburg Fram 1997.jpg

Fram, by Lothar Osterburg (photogravure, 15.5" x 18.5", 1997). The image illustrates a key early period and body of work in Lothar Osterburg's career in the later 1990s, when he began creating black-and-white photogravures using fanciful, quick miniature models based on persistent images in his memory, which he set in real outdoor settings, photographed through a magnifying glass or macro lens to appear life-size, and printed. Osterburg's earlier photogravures combine drama, whimsy and the mythic, depicting sea vessels in various states or dramas, rickety, rustic structures, and interiors carved from bits of soap to create mysterious images that obscure scale, reality and the imaginary. This particular image, Fram (built from firewood, twigs and toilet paper, photographed on a parking lot in Peterborough, New Hampshire), references an expedition by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to explore the polar ice drift in 1893 through parts of the Northeast passage; his ship, the Fram, froze in for three years. This work has been publicly exhibited in prominent venues, discussed widely in national art and daily press publications, and collected by major art institutions.

Artist Lothar Osterburg. Copyright held by the artist.

Lothar Osterburg

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key early period and body of work in Lothar Osterburg's career in the late 1990s: his black-and-white photogravures, which employ fanciful, quick miniature models made from humble, found materials (toothpicks, twigs, vegetables, glass doorknobs, broken umbrellas, books, refuse) and based on persistent images in his memory; he set these models in real outdoor settings, photographed them through a magnifying glass or macro lens to appear life-size, and printed them using the photogravure process, a 19th-century intaglio printmaking technique whose rich, velvety blacks, continuous infinite tonality, and sensitivity to textural effects impart qualities of timelessness, poignancy, mystery and the hand-made to images. Osterburg's photogravures are generally devoid of people and stripped of superfluous detail; his approach obscures scale and time yielding mysterious images suspended between reality and the imaginary. His photogravures combine drama, whimsy and the mythic, depicting sea vessels in various states or dramas, rickety, rustic structures, and interiors carved from bits of soap. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to visualize a key developmental phase in his art, which brought recognition from art journals, daily press publications, and museums. Osterburg's work of this type and this work in particular is discussed in the article and by prominent critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Lothar Osterburg, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.