Ornament’s Performance of Parergonality in the Engraving of Anton Würth

Abstract

The engravings of contemporary German artist Anton Würth deconstruct the marginalization of ornament. Influenced by Jacques Derrida’s thinking on parergonality, Würth’s thoughts on ornament run counter to Western philosophical and aesthetic traditions in which ornamentation (parergon) is most often conceived not as a process or as self-referential, but as something that frames, points to, and thereby secures the meaning-carrying center of a work (ergon) from a position outside it. In his artist books, prints, paintings, and installations, Würth draws attention to ornament’s durational qualities. Ornament moves, plays, iterates, and invades without respect for traditional boundaries. Würth’s ornament mischievously occupies spaces intended for writing and portraits, confuses distinctions between ornament and writing, and deconstructs the engraved portrait’s role of securing identity and authority. This article provides a survey of Würth’s work through the lens of parergonality and includes analysis of artist books Carnet 9 and Carnet 13, multiple series of engravings in conversation with both the legacy of seventeenth-century engraver Robert Nanteuil and the history of engraved ornament prints, and the public art project Schutz und Sicherheit von Werten (Protection and Security of Values).