Beyond Religiosity, Beyond Nationalism, Beyond Political Polemics is a three plate mezzotint from 2009 by American printmaker, Holly Downing. It is pencil signed, titled, and dated and was printed by the artist on BFK Rives France wove paper. Beyond Religiosity, Beyond Nationalism, Beyond Political Polemics was printed in an edition of 40 impressions, this being numbered 1/40. The combined dimension of the three printed plates is 16-1/2 x 17-13/16 inches.
Downing often presents her work as a series in which she explores themes of transcendence, life and death, and appreciation for those objects we often overlook. In 2009, she created a series of atmospheric images, entitled The Beyond Series. These offer an alternative to the weighty existentialism of civilization’s self-imposed perspectives, encouraging the viewer to look “beyond.” Here, she printed three horizontal plates on one sheet, creating a grid of images, Beyond Religiosity - Beyond Nationalism - Beyond Political Polemics, and compounding the effects of the images: reminding us that we are a part of something much larger, more mysterious, and infinitely more lasting than our earthly bodies and woes.
Holly Downing, painter, printmaker, and teacher, was born in San Francisco in 1948. She earned her B.A. at the University of California Santa Cruz in 1972. She also studied at the Royal College of Art, London, and earned her MFA from Goddard College where she researched mezzotint technique. She taught art for twenty-three years at the Santa Rosa Junior College and also taught at the University of California Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University.
Downing has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Greenshields Foundation, Canada; the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Graham Foundation, Chicago; and the San Francisco Phelan Foundation. She is an elected member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London.
Holly Downing’s work is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford; Scottish National Art Gallery, Edinburgh; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Chi-ba Art Museum and Nakasatsunai Art Museum, Japan; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the Stanford University Art Museum. Downing’s mezzotints are featured in The Mezzotint, History and Technique by Carol Wax, 1990.
