Art Werger - prints and biography
Mezzotint Prints Exploring Psychological Realism Through Light, Shadow, and the Human Condition
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 1997
Edition: 30
Image Size: 24 × 36 inches
in Beneath the Surface: Dissolve, Werger captures a fleeting, immersive moment beneath the rippling surface of a swimming pool. Echoing the iconic swimming pool paintings of David Hockney, Werger explores the luminous beauty of water as both subject and medium for distortion. Like Hockney, he uses the pool as a stage for human interaction, where light fragments into shimmering patterns and bodies become abstracted by refraction. Yet, Werger’s approach is distinct in its technical rigor and intimate, narrative focus, marrying photorealistic detail with the dreamlike qualities of submerged perspective.
The scene radiates both intimacy and universality: a family bound in motion, the child’s hand clasped securely, surrounded by the quiet blue expanse of water. Werger’s precise intaglio technique and painterly use of color evoke the sensation of being suspended in time, offering a contemplative study of light, movement, and connection.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 1997
Edition: 50
Image Size: 18 × 24 inches
In Waterwings, Art Werger captures the ever-shifting surface of a swimming pool as a young child is seen seen from above, the child’s blond hair glows in the sun, with red swim trunks and white floatation bands punctuating the cool expanse of rippling blue. Light dances across the water, fragmenting into intricate wave patterns and refracted reflections—hallmarks of Werger’s technical mastery in depicting both the human figure and its surrounding environment.
Part of Werger’s acclaimed aquatic series, Waterwings shares an affinity with the iconic pool imagery of David Hockney, where water becomes both subject and lens for altered perception. Like Hockney, Werger embraces the visual poetry of light and movement, yet his intaglio technique yields an extraordinary precision and textural richness unique to the medium. The result is a moment suspended in time, evoking both the joy and quietude of childhood summers.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2000
Edition: 50
Image Size: 24 x 36 inches
a richly colored etching with aquatint by Art Werger, depicting three female figures moving beneath the surface of water. Light refracts across their bodies, creating a rhythmic interplay of form, color, and motion.
Referencing the classical motif of the Three Graces while firmly grounded in a contemporary visual language, the work balances idealized figuration with a modern sense of immediacy and sensuality. The fluid handling of color and the immersive aquatic setting invite comparison to late 20th-century explorations of the figure in water, while remaining unmistakably Werger’s own.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2025
Edition: 50
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
Sheet Size: 30 × 30 inches
"Turbulence" is a black and white mezzotint showing an ocean wave cresting, against a turbulent night time sky. It is hand printed by the artist from a 24" x 24" copper plate in an edition of 50. There are 18 colors in total. The individual prints were inked with Gamblin Portland Cool black ink on Hahnemühle Copperplate bright white paper or Fabiano Murillo paper.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Color etching and aquatint
Image Size: 24 x 18 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
Color version of Werger print showing Philippe Petit on his historic highwire walk between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City in 1974. The sprawling vertigo inducing vision of New York at night forms the background.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2000
Edition: 50
Image Size: 36 x 24 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Color etching and aquatint
Image Size: 6 x 6 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2012
Edition: X
Image Size: 9.5 × 7 inches
A striking aerial view of an archetypal suburban neighborhood, rendered with his characteristic precision and subtle wit. Curving cul-de-sacs and looping roads form an almost abstract pattern, their orderly geometry contrasted with the organic shapes of lawns and tree shadows. Houses with teal roofs punctuate the composition, creating a rhythmic visual map of modern domestic planning.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Two Plate Color Mezzotint
Image Size: 11.5 x 9.75 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Image Size: 11.5 x 9.75 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: etching and aquatint
Image Size: 24 x 18 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
Black and white version of Werger’s print showing Philippe Petit on his historic highwire walk between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City in 1974.
By: Art Werger
Medium: black and white Mezzotint
Image Size: 13 x 17.5 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2023
Edition: 50
Image Size: 11.75 x 17.5 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching with aquatint
Year: 2001
Edition: #3/5, color variant
Image Size: 23.5 x 35.5 inches
The composition focuses tightly on a breaking wave, capturing the moment where crest, spray, and undertow collide in a layered rhythm of movement.
Werger’s handling of aquatint allows subtle tonal shifts to emerge within the darkened water, while etched lines articulate the foam and turbulence along the wave’s edge. The result is both observational and abstracted, emphasizing the physical energy of the sea rather than a fixed horizon or shoreline. Storm Wave III exemplifies Werger’s ability to translate natural motion into a formally controlled and immersive print.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Cut plate Color Etching and Aquatint with a la poupee and surface rolls
Image Size: 14 x 10 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Two Plate Color Etching and Aquatint with Toner Wash
Image Size: 12 x 18 inches
Year: 2024
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2033
Edition: 20
Image Size: 24 x 32 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2000
Edition: 10
Image Size: 24 x 36 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2005
Edition: 75
Image Size: 11.25 x 15 inches
A tranquil garden scene with dappled sunlight, water glasses on a table, next to a reflecting pool.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2005
Edition: 100
Image Size: 23 x 16.5 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: mezzotint
Year: 2011
Edition: 75
Image Size: 17.25 x 23.25 inches
American Dream is a beautifully rendered mezzotint by Art Werger, portraying a circular suburban neighborhood illuminated at night. From a high vantage point, the viewer looks down on winding streets, glowing streetlamps, and closely nestled homes, capturing both the comfort and quiet ambiguity of the American suburban ideal. Werger’s mastery of the mezzotint technique is evident in the deep blacks, velvety shadows, and soft gradations of light that define the scene.
Signed and numbered in pencil. Mezzotint, 2011.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2015
Edition: 40
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Image Size: 3.25 x 3.25 inches
Year: 2014
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2004
Edition: 100
Image Size: 15.5 x 11 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2016
Edition: 25
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2006
Edition: 50
Image Size: 11.75 x 11.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2023
Edition: 25
Image Size: 9.25 x 6.25 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2023
Edition: 25
Image Size: 9.25 x 6.25 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2003
Edition: 40
Image Size: 24 x 32 inches
Art Werger
Biography
Art Werger’s prints show a keen observation of quiet and normally unnoticed moments. Pedestrians passing each other, lost in their own worlds. Sunlight filtering through a garden landscape, or the reflection of lights on wet pavement after a storm.
His prints are masterful at capturing a mood, and suggesting a story for the viewer to complete. In a totally different vein, his color etchings play with the effects of light. His prints of swimmers show an uncanny ability to create the shimmering play of light underwater on a summer day.
His figures often inhabit ambiguous interior spaces that feel both architectural and emotional—rooms that function as states of mind as much as physical environments. In this way, Werger’s prints share a kinship with artists such as Peter Milton, whose intricate compositions similarly frame figures within layered spaces charged with narrative tension.
Werger has received over 250 awards in national and international exhibitions. Before retiring, Art Werger was a Professor of Art in the Printmaking program at Ohio University where he was named a Presidential Research Scholar. He also taught at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, where he served as Division Chair of the Fine Arts. Read more about Art Werger's work and career.
For more information on the mezzotint process:
History of the mezzotint
Psychological Realism
Artists who examine the human condition through technically rigorous, finely rendered imagery.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2025
Edition: 50
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
Sheet Size: 30 × 30 inches
"Turbulence" is a color mezzotint showing an ocean wave cresting, against a turbulent night time sky. It is hand printed by the artist from a 24" x 24" copper plate in an edition of 50. There are 18 colors in total. The individual prints were inked with Gamblin Portland Cool black ink on Hahnemühle Copperplate bright white paper or Fabiano Murillo paper.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2025
Edition: 50
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
Sheet Size: 30 × 30 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching with aquatint
Year: 2021
Edition: 45
Image Size: 35.5 x 23.75 inches
A Birds-eye view of a sea gull sailing over the California surf.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2016
Edition: 25
Image Size: 24 x 24 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 1996
Edition: 75
Image Size: 10.25 x 13.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2015
Edition: 25
Image Size: 36 x 24 inches
Cities: 24 Hours
Twenty-four city views, each representing an hour of the day.
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2002
Edition: 25
Image Size: 4.75 x 4.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Image Size: 4.75 x 4.75 inches
Year: 2002
Edition: 25
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2002
Edition: 25
Image Size: 4.75 x 4.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2002
Edition: 25
Image Size: 4.75 x 4.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 2002
Edition: 25
Image Size: 4.75 x 4.75 inches
By: Art Werger
Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 2013
Edition: 35
Image Size: 23.44 × 35.56 inches
Bronzino presents a sun-dappled afternoon scene in which a woman in a floral bikini reclines on a striped towel beside her dog. The play of filtered sunlight through tree branches creates a delicate lattice of light and shadow across their bodies, evoking the warmth, stillness, and intimacy of summer.Renowned for his masterful control of intaglio printmaking, Art Werger captures light, shadow, and human presence with extraordinary realism.