|
Elephant Tarot
There is a certain sort of tarot deck, which neither can be used for playing the game of tarot, nor be used
for card-reading or similar enterprises. Their purpose is to allow their artists to express themselves within
the tarot frame, leaning more or less on the traditional tarot structure and images. Seen with the eyes of
the people - the collectors - who buy them, they are small and handy pieces of art, which can easily be
stored away and looked at occasionally. In most cases these decks are made in small or limited editions only.
One new deck that fits into this category is German artist Michael Kutzer's "Elefanten Tarot", which hardly
has reached the collectors' market yet. The copy described here is a prototype received as a gift from the
artist.
Michael Kutzer is no novice regarding tarot art. He started his tarot art activities back in 1989 with
"Michael's Tarot", not named after himself, but after the Archangel Michael, who was rendered as "Justice".
"Michael's Tarot" was a limited series of hand-printed and hand-colored etchings, very limited indeed since
only 12 copies were made. Later followed "Tarot Pers" (1993), a satirical major arcana. As a high school art
teacher, Kutzer also encouraged his students to engage in a joint tarot project, which resulted in "Tarot
Neugereuther".
After having finished a series of 22 oil paintings, named "Doll's tarot" in Germany, Kutzer left and lives
now in the USA. "Elefanten Tarot" is the first of a series of "animal tarots" created there. It is a full 78
card deck, depicting elephants on all cards in situations that relate more or less to the traditional tarot
images. The general impression of the deck is that of pure lightness, lines being drawn by a soft pencil and
the colors added by slight touches of colored pencils. The illustrations are entertaining and have competent
art and are very far from the many boring commercial illustrator's products, that reach the tarot market.
The entirely handmade production was taken care of by Michael Kutzer's partner, Susan Arenz, using an inkjet
printer on a very heavy watercolor paper. The result is remarkable, I wouldn't have imagined it could have
been done.
"Elefanten Tarot" is planned as the first in a series of "animal tarots". I have seen drafts for a "Hedgehog
Tarot", "Penguin Tarot", "Frog Tarot" and a "Giraffe Tarot". Maybe, in the end, there will be a whole Noah's
Ark full of animal tarot figures by Michael Kutzer. Quite a special collector's theme!
Review first printed in "The Playing Card",
Vol. 33 #2, October-December 2004
© K. Frank Jensen 2004
Frog Tarot
The next deck, "Frosch Tarot", in Michael Kutzer's series of tarot decks based upon the world of animals,
has just become available. The series is now called "Cudahy Tarot" after the place in Wisconsin/USA, where
Kutzer lives for the time being. Like the preceding deck ("Elefanten Tarot"), see above, this is a signed
and limited edition of 32 decks only. Again, we have 78 small collectible pieces of art, all showing aspects
in the lives of frogs which, (at least it appears so), is not so different from that of human beings.
An exemplary hand-made production.
Review first printed in "The Playing Card",
Vol. 33 #3, January-March 2004
© K. Frank Jensen 2004
Tarot Pers
Back in 1993, I published through my outlet "Ouroboros", the first edition of German artist Michael Kutzer's
satiric/humoristic "Tarot Pers". While this first edition was a 22 card major set only, the artist, now
living in the US, has recently extended "Tarot Pers" to a full 78 card tarot deck. The majors are the same
as in the first edition, exposing a travesty of human life (I hardly dare to use the word "caricature" these
days). Or, should I say, that the pictures reflect life as it is lived in the Western world? Some would say,
that they do.
The suits of the four elements are essentially the traditional Wands, Swords, Cup and Pentacles, but in the
illustrations they take different forms, like when guns, knives, saws and even a suicide bomber appear in the
suit of swords to represent aggression. The Cups reflect all kinds of obsessions, like alcohol, excessive
eating, promiscuity and smoking, not to forget the obsession of having too many cats in the house. With five
cats in our house, we could have been an inspiration for the nine of cups and maybe for other cards in this
suit too, except and definitely, not for the TV- and sport-addiction illustrated on the three and ten of Cups.
The suit of Wands reflects power and how power can be misused. The pentacles deal with wealth and its
opposite, poverty.
The deck is self-produced with black line-art printed on a light grey cardboard. The cards are laminated on
both sides and come in a silvery-grey cardboard case. The signed deck was made in a limited edition of 100
decks only.
|
