Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso CalderaMiró DaliThe Renoir Matisse Albers Capturing Moment: Art of the Print Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Galerie Atched’Orsay Chagall Frankenthaler 2017 Matisse Albers - March Picasso Calder February Miró Dali Renoir Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine 33 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116
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Contents
Durer, p. 4
Renoir, p. 7
Atche, p. 11
Chagall, p. 16
Miro, p. 20
Introduction p. 3
Rembrandt, p. 5
Matisse, p. 9
Picasso, p. 12
Albers, p. 19
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Dali, p. 27
Calder, p. 25
Motherwell, p. 32
de Kooning, p. 31
Frankenthaler p. 34
Francis p. 33
Dine, p. 36
Rosenquist p. 35
Hirst, p. 38
Sultan p. 37
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Introduction
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A Brief History of Print What was once considered merely a method of communication, the dynamic practice of printmaking has been elevated to the highest forms of art, with artistic geniuses reinventing the medium through the ages. Albrecht Dürer was the first artist who elevated printmaking to an art form as he expanded on its tonal and dramatic ranges through woodcuts and intricate engravings. Their intellectual scope, depth and technical mastery had been unmatched by earlier printed work. The artistic virtuoso of Rembrandt was soon to follow, who recognized that etching was best executed with the subtle and deliberate touch of a draftsman and not the heavy hand of a professional printmaker. He explored every scratch, line and fleck applied to the plate, continually altered the process and innovated techniques along the way. During the latter part of Henri Matisse’s career, he turned to a novel technique that sounded so simple – scissors, paper and paint. Through his cut-outs, Matisse was able to combine the formal elements of color and line in ground-breaking fashion, culminating in the most famous art book published throughout history, Jazz. Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest artists and contributors to art history, discovered that by working from the boldest forms down to the finest, he could print successive colors in linoleum from the same block. Joan Miró that found printmaking made his paintings richer and inspired him with new ideas for his works. Through his use of an abrasive ground in his engravings, known as carborundum, Miró was able to create a textured surface in his prints. Through his combination of techniques including carborundum, etchings and aquatints, Miró set an incomparable standard for the possibilities printmaking opened to artists. From Andy Warhol to Roy Liechtenstein, Pop artists turned away from traditional painting alone, exploring the
addition of mechanical reproduction to printmaking. Through the incorporation of popular culture images, advertising and media into their works, Pop artists embraced screen-printing, which allowed for experimentation with repetition, brilliant color and a reflection of an increasingly consumer-based society. Contemporary artists Donald Sultan and Damien Hirst are continuing the tradition of artists working in a variety of mediums and pushing the boundaries of printmaking today. Join us on our incredible journey through the art of the print and the masters who continue to challenge, innovate and reinvent the medium.
An etching going through the press The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt, Ed. Gary Schwartz
Albrecht Dürer
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
German, 1471 — 1528 Regarded as the greatest German Renaissance painter and printmaker, Dürer elevated the woodcut medium from semi-folk art to fine art. Dürer found himself most innovative and expansive in his works on paper, exploring sacred religious icons, portraiture, book illustrations, mythological and historical themes, amongst others. His ninety-six engravings, six etchings and three dry points are held amongst the finest and best known artworks, having achieved an unprecedented intricacy of detail, subtlety of line and three-dimensionality.
The Small Horse c. 1505, Engraving, 6 7/16 x 4 1/4”
The Virgin with the Dragonfly c. 1495, Engraving, 9 3/8 x 7 5/16”
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Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
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French, 1606-1669 Arguably one of the most important figures in art history, Rembrandt forever changed the medium of printmaking through his genius draftsmanship and masterful rendering of the vast array of human emotion. Through his expert understanding of the etching process and innovations in chiaroscuro, Rembrandt pushed a relatively new medium to its expressive limits. The artist employed every sort of scratch, dash, and fleck to create nuances of texture and tone. He experimented with the darkness of line in etching like no other artist before him, and achieved rich tonal variations and velvety textures through a combination of etching and drypoint. Rembrandt’s unsurpassed mastery of of the medium extends to the breadth of his subjects, which included everyday life in 17th century Amsterdam, landscapes, genre scenes, and portraiture.
Three Oriental Figures c. 1641, Etching, 5 11/16 x 4 7/16”
Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window c. 1648, Etching and drypoint, 6 7/16 x 5 1/4”
Beggars Receiving Alms at the Door of a House c. 1906, Etching, 17 1/4 x 12”
Abraham Entertaining the Angels c. 1656, Etching, 6 3/8 x 5 1/4”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
“Without atmosphere, a painting is nothing.” - Rembrandt
Cottages and Farm Building with a Man Sketching c. 1641, Etching, 5 7/8 x 8 7/8”
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Pierre Auguste Renoir French, 1841-1919 As one of the most beloved artists of the Impressionist movement, Renoir captured ordinary moments of everyday life with grace and joy. One of the constant themes he explored was children, particularly those of his own and extended family. Le Chapeau Épinglé is the most celebrated and sought-after works in his graphic oeuvre, notable for the intimacy and tenderness in the pinning of a hat by Berthe Morisot’s daughter and her cousin. Immediately captivated by the beauty of the experience, Renoir explored this scene in various forms of etching and lithography. Instances such as this demonstrate how intensely a moment in life can grip an artist and compel them to capture the emotion and atmosphere of the moment by any means possible.
Une Mere et Deux Enfants c. 1905-1910, Lithograph, 18 1/2 x 28 5/8”
Le Chapeau Épinglé c. 1912, Etching, 9 3/4 x 7 1/8”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
L’Enfant au Biscuit (Jean Renoir) c. 1898-1899, Lithograph, 19 x 16 1/4”
Jeune Femme en Buste (Mademoiselle Dieterle) c. 1889, Lithograph, 20 3/4 x 15 7/8”
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Henri Matisse French, 1869-1954 Beloved for his vibrant and exuberant use of color, Henri Matisse contributed greatly to several art movements, including Neo-Impressionism & Fauvism, throughout the course of his illustrious career. The Jazz Suite, created in 1947, is particularly recognized for Matisse’s superb use of color, in addition to his innovative technique of utilizing cutouts & stencils in creating these stunning hand-colored pochoir works (precursor to silk screening & screen printing). For combining Matisse’s beautiful arabesque text and flowing linear cutouts, the Jazz Suite is considered the greatest artist’s book of all time. Matisse also experimented with the impact of pure lines. His Pasiphae suite is widely admired for the simplicity behind his illustrations for the modern retelling of classic Greek mythology. Modeling his imagery on ancient Greek black-figure vase painting, he re-cut some images as many as a dozen times before he was satisfied with every line and formal relationship. 1944 Pasiphae Suite Top left: ...Franchie sur des lits de violettes... Top right: ...Le regard fixe, les joues en feu... Bottom left: ...Tenebres de Moi-meme, je m’avandonne a vous... Bottom right: ...Et se coucher chaque soir dans son malheur... Linoleum engravings, 9 3/4 x 12 3/4”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Le Loup c. 1947, Hand-colored pochoir, 16 5/8 x 25 5/8�
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Jane Atche French, 1872 — 1937 French artist Jane Atche worked in lithographic prints during the grand Belle Epoque era in Paris, first experimenting in black and white and later in color. Despite their scarcity, her posters definitively show the influence and mentorship of Alphonse Mucha, a giant in the Art Nouveau movement. Her best-known work is this iconic image for the cigarette paper, Job, for which Mucha also produced designs during the same period. Atche exquisitely handled the dress and cigarette smoke – the resolute straight line of the black cape slashes the design virtually in half, a bold design choice that recalls the style of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Job c. 1896, Lithograph, 57 1/2 x 42 1/2”
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Pablo Picasso
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Spanish, 1881 — 1973 Highly regarded as the greatest printmaker in history of art, Pablo Picasso had a graphic oeuvre that spanned more than seven decades and demonstrated his awe-inspiring ability to exploit every possibility in any medium with which he chose to work. Once he mastered the traditional printmaking methods of etching into a copper plate, he experimented further with scarcely known techniques, such as sugar-lift aquatint. He was introduced to many techniques through working with master printers in Parisian ateliers, and he later acquired a press of his own as he continued to experiment in and advance this engaging and challenging medium. A virtuoso craftsman in engraving, etching, lithography, and linocut, he astonished printmakers time after time as he continued to master the medium and challenged his collaborators to expand their own skills as craftsmen.
Vallauris - 1956 / Exposition c. 1956, Lithograph, 38 1/4 x 25 1/2�
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Taureau et Picador c. Sept. 5-6, 1959, Original linocut printed in three colors from one block, 24 5/8 x 29 1/2�
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Buste au Corsage à Carreaux - Jacqueline c. Dec. 18, 1957, Lithograph, 25 5/8 x 19 7/8”
Faune Souriant (Smiling Faun) c. 1948, Lithograph, 30 x 22”
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“I’m always saying to myself: That’s not right yet. You can do better ... Sometimes, it becomes an absolute obsession. But for that matter, why would anyone work, if not for that? To express the same thing, but express it better. It’s always necessary to seek for perfection. Obviously, for us, this word no longer has the same meaning. To me, it means: from one canvas to the next, always go further, further…” - Pablo Picasso
Picador II c. March 6, 1961, Lithograph, 9 5/8 x 12 7/16”
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Marc Chagall
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Russian, 1887 — 1985 Marc Chagall began experimenting with printmaking in the 1920s and quickly became enamored with the process, finding that the medium allowed him to properly express his unique narrative interests. “When I held a lithographic stone or a copperplate in my hand, I thought I was touching a talisman. It seemed to me that I could put all my joys and sorrows in it…everything that touched my life through the years; births, deaths, weddings, flowers, animals, bird, my parents, lovers in the light, on the street, at home, in the temple and in heaven.” Widely regarded as among the greatest colorists in art history, he revolutionized the medium with his ground-breaking “Daphnis and Chloe” suite, which is drenched in brilliant colors. Even after completion of that suite, Chagall continued to pursue his fascination with color lithography, forever eager to challenge himself and the medium.
Le Jardin de Pomone c. 1968, Lithograph, 26 x 19 1/2”
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Chloe’s Kiss c. 1961, Lithograph, 16 5/8 x 12 5/8”
Le Cirque c. 1967, Lithograph, 16 13/16 x 12 13/16”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
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“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and lovers of their opposites.” - Marc Chagall
Vue Sur Notre-Dame c. 1980, Lithograph, 45 1/2 x 29 1/2”
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Josef Albers German, 1888 — 1976 One of the most immediately recognizable series of works created in the twentieth century is Josef Albers’s Homage to the Square. Starting his signature series in 1950 and over the course of 26 years, Albers explored color variations on the basic compositional scheme of three or four squares set inside each other. As a student and later instructor at the Bauhaus school, Albers published the influential dissertation “Interaction of Color”, a study of color theory widely used in art instruction. Imparting these theories onto his Homage to the Square series, Albers experimented with the subjective experience of colors and the effects adjacent colors have on one another.
Homage to the Square: SP - VI c. 1967, Color screenprint, 24 1/4 x 24 1/4”
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Joan Miró
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Spanish, 1893 — 1983 Surrealist artist and poet Joan Miró’s radical and inventive style was a critical contributor in the early twentieth-century avant-garde movement towards complete abstraction. Through a variety of mediums, Miró experimented with his signature biomorphic forms, geometric shapes, and semi-abstracted objects. Working in his signature bold color palette of reds, yellows, blues, and greens, Miró’s works drew on memory, fantasy and his twisted organic shapes as visual representations of surrealist poetry. A major breakthrough in Miró’s storied career was his introduction to carborundum — he found that, by combining carborundum with other etching methods, he could invent images to rival any painting. Incredibly passionate about printmaking, Miró would devote his entire final decade of his life experimenting and immersed himself into project after project.
La Harpie c. 1969, Etching, aquatint and carborundum, 37 1/8 x 27 3/8”
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Eclats c. 1968, Etching, aquatint and carborundum, 24 1/4 x 22 5/8”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Woman in Front of a Mirror c. 1056, Lithograph, 15 x 22�
Dog Barking at the Moon c. 1952, Lithograph, 14 x 21�
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Untitled (from Le Marteau sans Maître) c. 1976, Etching and aquatint, 17 1/4 x 13”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
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“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.” - Joan Miro
Le Chasseur de Pieuvres c. 1969, Etching, aquatint, and carborundum, 41 3/8 x 26 1/4”
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Alexander Calder American, 1898 — 1976 Widely celebrated for his innovative mobile sculptures that introduced the art of movement, Alexander Calder also worked in a variety of mediums, including gouache and lithography. Born into a family of artists with both grand-father and father as well known sculptors, Calder was initially more interested in mechanics and engineering. His creative energies turned towards art after high school and he worked in illustration, painting, and sculpting in New York. Both his graphic works and sculptures have an incredible sense of whimsy, brilliance in color and movement.
Composition aux Cercles c. 1970,Lithograph, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2”
Magie Eolienne c. 1972,Lithograph, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Untitled c. 1970,Lithograph, 19 5/8 x 12 3/4”
Balloons c. 1971,Lithograph, 14 x 10”
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Salvador Dali Spanish, 1904 — 1989 Salvador Dali was one of the most brilliantly provocative artists of the twentieth century, not only in his public life but also in the field of painting and printmaking. Greatly influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, Dali moved toward an “art of the unconscious” and has come to symbolize the art movement of Surrealism. A superb engraver and draftsman, Dali created images that combined sensuality and the macabre in playful visions of his creative and academic realities.
Picasso’s Horse c. 1968, Etching, 15 x 11 1/4”
Untitled c. 1969, Etching, 15 x 11”
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Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Argus in Color c. 1963, colored by Dali in 1973, Etching, 22 1/4 x 30�
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“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” - Salvador Dali
Flower Woman with Soft Piano c. 1969, Etching, 26 x 20”
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
Pegasus c. 1964, Drypoint with aquatint, 22 5/8 x 30 1/4�
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Willem de Kooning Dutch, 1904 — 1997 One of the most prominent and celebrated Abstract Expressionist painters, Willem de Kooning explored the dynamic gestural style of the movement to its full potential. His works, particularly of the human figure, uniquely blended gestural abstraction and figuration, partly influenced by Picasso’s Cubist and Surrealist periods. Known for reworking his pieces over time, de Kooning left a sense of incompletion in many of his works, as if his abstract forms were still in the process of moving.
Untitled c. 1972, Screenprint, 24 1/8 x 36 1/8”
Untitled c. 1972, Screenprint, 33 3/4 x 23”
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Robert Motherwell
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
American, 1915 — 1991 An articulate and intellectual talent among the Abstract Expressionist artists in New York, Motherwell was the youngest of his contemporaries, which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Hans Hoffman. Motherwell sought to create imagery that communicated the emotional truths of an authentic self and reflected collective human conscious. In the late 1940s, Motherwell reached his mature style, producing his series of large paintings that employed simple shapes with a strong political and literary content. During the 1950s and 60s, Motherwell would further expand on his art writings and as a leading art theorist, taught at the highly regarded Black Mountain College in North Carolina, with several notable alumni including Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombley.
“I almost never start with an image. I start with a painting idea, and impulse, usually derived from my own world.” - Robert Motherwell
Music for J.S. Bach c. 1989, Color lithograph collage, 14 1/2 x 11 5/8”
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Sam Francis
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American, 1923 — 1994 Sam Francis, never formally associated with any one movement, developed his own personal style of abstraction focused on dripping, cell-like forms, an allover instability and brilliant sensitivity to color and light. Having experimented with emerging styles during the 1940s, particularly Abstract Expressionism, Francis was inspired by a wide range of artists, including Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. With an emphasis on color and gestural movement, Francis evolved through his career from bright, centrally placed shapes evocative of Tibetan mandalas to severe grid structures and later snakelike forms and color drips.
“Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment.” - Sam Francis
Trietto IV c. 1991, Aquatint, 52 7/8 x 65 1/2”
Helen Frankenthaler
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
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American, 1928 — 2011 Although she worked among the giants of Abstract Expressionism, Helen Frankenthaler maintained her unique vision and originality and came to pioneer the Color Field movement. Influenced by her contemporary, Jackson Pollock, and inspired by the forms and energies latent in nature, Frankenthaler took Pollock’s method of painting one step further. Expanding on his process of layering paint onto unprimed canvases laying on the floor, she allowed thinner pigments to soak directly into the canvas, creating a closer relationship between image and surface. This technique generated a new range of liquid-like atmospheric effects reminiscent of watercolors and transitioned into her beautiful lithography and screen prints.
In the Wings c. 1987, Etching, aquatint, and lithograph, 13 1/2 x 21 1/4”
“My pictures are full of climates, abstract climates. They are not nature per se, but a feeling.” - Helen Frankenthaler
Plaza Real c. 1987, Etching and aquatint, 28 7/16 x 35”
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James Rosenquist
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American, 1933 — Beginning in commercial art as a billboard painter, Rosenquist demonstrates his superb abstract painting technique through his mastery of color, line and shape. As a leading American Pop artist among his contemporaries, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Rosenquist culled imagery from print advertisements, photographs and popular periodicals to create his mysterious and bold compositions. He was among the first to directly address the persuasive powers of advertising by applying the Surrealist practice of juxtaposing seemingly unrelated subjects to fragmented commercial images and ads.
“I’m interested in contemporary vision...the flicker of chrome, reflections, rapid associations, quick flashes of light. Bing-bang! I don’t do anecdotes. I accumulate experiences.” - James Rosenquist
Star Pointer c. 1977, Lithograph, die-cut, and collage, 22 1/8 x 44 1/4”
Jim Dine
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
American, 1935 — Often associated with the development of Pop Art in the 1960s, Jim Dine explores recurrent themes and images of everyday objects, particularly those of his own. From tools, rope, shoes, neckties, flowers and robes, Dine is inspired by the power of simple images to be both familiar and symbolic. Working in a strong, graphic style with bright colors and straightforward, popular images, his works can be seen as extensions of his contemporaries, including Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper John’s Neo-Dada art.
“My attitude towards drawing is not necessarily about drawing. It’s about making the best kind of image I can make, it’s about talking as clearly as I can.” - Jim Dine
Blue Vase, Yellow Flowers c. 1993, Etching, heliogravure, power-tool, and monotype with hand-coloring, 34 x 25 1/2”
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Donald Sultan American, 1959 — Rising to prominence in the late 1970s with his first one-man show, Donald Sultan has created a body of work since then that has placed him at the forefront of the contemporary art movement. Working in a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture and printmaking, he is known for his monumental works rendering basic geometric and organic elements with a formal minimalism. His abstract still lifes of fruit, flowers, dominoes and other objects are set against a stark background, often described as studies in contrast with an equal emphasis on negative and positive space.
“The more you work from reality the more abstract things can get.” - Donald Sultan
Green Flower c. 1994, Color woodblock, 11 x 9”
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Damien Hirst
Capturing a Moment: The Art of the Print
British, 1965 — One of the late twentieth century’s greatest provocateurs in recent art history, British artist Damien Hirst has explored the complex relationship between art, life and death through a variety of mediums. His works investigate and challenge contemporary belief systems and the uncertainties at the heart of the human experience. Hirst’s approach is firmly rooted in historical and contemporary sources, harkening back to memento mori images in European still life. His Psalms prints draw directly from the butterfly collages of larger scale paintings, calling to mind the exquisite stained glass of Europe’s grand cathedrals.
Psalm: Miserere Mei Deus c. 2016, Screenprint, 18 x 18”
Psalm: Expectans Expectavi c. 2016, Screenprint, 18 x 18”
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