Totanka ha

Ramon Edward Oeschger

Ramon Oeschger worked at famed experimental printmaking workshop Atelier 17 in Paris in the early 1950s. This print's combination of vivid colors and layered shapes and textures exemplifies the Atelier's color viscosity printmaking technique, discovered by its founder, Stanley William Hayter, and further developed by those who studied with him.

While it's not certain how Oeschger came to title this piece, the word "totanka" (variously spelled "totonka" and "tatanka") is the Lakota word for the male bison, and also describes a spritual way of being and the importance of the bison to the lives of the tribespeople.

Oeschger concentrated primarily on printmaking, specifically etching and engraving, as well as the collagraph process. He was awarded a purchase prize at the National Print Exhibition, 14th Biennial at the Brooklyn Museum. Find more on the artist in the biography linked above.