Los últimos gigantes del Paraná

Artist name

Hertha Henriette Hiebl

Artist year born

1948

Artwork title translation

The Last Giants of the Paraná

Artwork material

woodcut
paper

Artwork dimensions

height: 46cm
width: 35cm

Artwork type (categories)

Print

Accession method

Donated by Hertha Henriette Hiebl 1996

Accession number

54-1996

Label text

Ultimos Gigantes del Paraná is a deceptively simple image of a straight tarmac road stretching to the horizon, like a diagram of a perspective construction, and is typical of the understated sophistication of so much of Paraguay's wood engraving over the past five decades. Hiebl exploits the grain of the wood to suggest the hard shiny surface of the black road against the hazy grey-blue-green of the landscape and sky. The delicacy of the lines of the background contrasts with the deliberately bold, almost naïf style of the figure of the man in his ox-cart, just as he contrasts with the modern highway along which he travels. Extensive logging has taken place in the Paraná region, and the Last Giants of the title are presumably the few isolated trees, remnants, like the ox-cart, of a pre-modern era.
Valerie Fraser

Last updated date

2008