R eg i o n a l C o n n otat i o n s: Two Modernists in Cowtown Works on Paper by Cynthia Brants & Paintings by McKie Trotter
Cynthia Brants, Gallop
on view J a n u a r y 17 - F e b r u a r y 8 , 2 0 1 4 W i l l i a m R e a v e s F i n e Ar t
McKie Trotter, Brayer Scape
McKie Trotter, Untitled 3
Cynthia Brants, Morning
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n Works on Paper by Cynthia Brants & Paintings by McKie Trotter on view January 17th - Februar y 8th, 2014.
McKie Trotter, Tumbleweed Series
S p e c i a l Ev e n t s : F r i d ay, J a n u a r y 1 7 , 2 0 1 3 : C o l l e c t o rs ’ P re v i e w S a t u rd ay, J a n u a r y 1 8 , 2 0 1 3 , 5 - 8 p m : O p e n i n g Re c e p t i o n
A full exhibition catalogue is available at reavesart.com. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am5pm, and by appointment, please call (713) 521-7500.
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n On the surface of things, it is sometime hard to fathom how modernism could take such strong hold in Fort Worth, Texas, during the interior decades of the twentieth century. Given the community’s colorful history and identity as a rambunctious cattle town, one might have projected that denizens of this self-proclaimed “Gateway to the West,” may well have rejected the avant-garde in favor of more conservative art fare, something with a Western flare, perhaps. While prominent art patrons of the venerable old “Cowtown” have certainly collected their fair share of Remington, Russell and other such fine examples of Western genre, the city simultaneously nurtured and eventually embraced it’s own distinctive brand of Texas Modernism during the middle years of the twentieth century. In this exhibition, Regional Connotations, William Reaves Fine Art explores the work of two of Fort Worth’s foremost midcentury modernists – Cynthia Brants (1924-2006) and McKie Trotter (1918-1999).
Cynthia Brants was a Fort Worth native, and scion of a prominent family in that community. After matriculation at Arlington Heights High School, Brants graduated high school at a Virginia prep school, and subsequently enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, majoring in drawing and painting. While at Sarah Lawrence, Brants worked under the tutelage of German-born print-maker Kurt Roesch, as well as taking instruction from the master print-maker, Stanley William Hayter at the New School for Social Research in New York. She returned to Fort Worth after graduation from Sarah Lawrence in 1945, and joined, as its youngest female member, a group of local artists working together in a loosely knit workshop. The group was eventually dubbed “The Fort Worth Circle”, a name suggested by Brants. While traveling broadly and studying extensively, Brants remained in the Fort Worth area for the remainder of her life, moving to the nearby small town of Granbury around 1980.
Influenced by the style and verve of the Fort Worth Circle, the nowfamous modernist forebears of the 1940s, Brants and Trotter were among a group of young Fort Worth artists who celebrated and extended the Circle’s progressive movements. They blazed new paths in regional art through the 50s, 60s and beyond, and in doing so sealed Fort Worth’s reputation as a harbinger of modern art within the state.
McKie Trotter arrived in Fort Worth in late 1947, assuming a faculty position at Texas Wesleyan University. From prominent Georgia stock, Trotter had graduated from William and Mary College in Virginia in 1940 and entered graduate school in art at the University of Georgia. His graduate studies were interrupted in 1942 when he was inducted into active duty as an officer in the United States Army. Sent to Europe as an infantry captain, Trotter eventually spent nine months as a German prisoner of war prior to his release at war’s end. Returning home after the war, he re-enrolled at Georgia and completed his MFA under the direction of notable artist Lamar Dodd. His MFA thesis work was actually completed at the time of his assignment as a Wesleyan faculty member, where he stayed until 1953. In 1953, Trotter assumed a faculty position at Texas Christian University, a position he held until his retirement in 1988.
While equally adept at many media, the two artists made their principal marks in different domains, with Brants achieving notoriety as one of the most inventive and accomplished printmakers ever to grace the Texas scene, and Trotter emerging as one of state’s most heralded and broadly exhibited painters of the mid-century period. Accordingly, the exhibition proudly features elegant prints by Cynthia Brants along with a cache of fresh-to-market paintings by McKie Trotter. These works combine to create a stunning and engaging exhibition of classic Texas Modernism. The subject artists were acquaintances and active contemporaries on the Fort Worth art scene, but beyond that their backgrounds and professional journeys diverged.
Both Brants and Trotter spent the bulk of their accomplished careers as active and highly-regarded contributors to the Fort Worth art community, as well as leaders in the state’s larger art scene. Both artists advanced their particular modernist aesthetic through teaching
and exhibition. Both were devoted to teaching; Trotter instructing in local universities and Brants in local art workshops and/or museum schools. Brants exhibited often, albeit primarily in local venues, and she engaged in numerous commissioned assignments. Trotter, however, was extremely active and imminently successful with regard to exhibiting his paintings. In fact, during the decade between 1950-1960, Trotter may have had the most enviable exhibition record among all of his Texas peers, showing works and winning prizes in all of the major museums within the state, as well as exhibiting in group exhibitions in museums in New York, San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, New Orleans, Colorado Springs, Youngstown (Ohio), Birmingham, Santa Fe and Oklahoma City. While working in differing styles and media, the works of this “Cowtown” duo bear a common Texas imprimatur. As the exhibition title suggests, regional connotation is consistent and strong in the prints of Cynthia Brants and the paintings of McKie Trotter. Whether capturing gentle folds of a flower, demure light streaking through native live oaks, or the classic movements of a horse’s gait, Brants regales us with a treasure trove of Texas subjects in her exquisite prints, rendered in her distinctive cubist style. Likewise, Trotter’s affinity for the wide-open, horizontal expanses of Texas, the nuanced colors of its lands and the charged atmosphere of its unbroken skies comes through time after time in his landscapeinspired abstractions. The results are a block-buster exhibition which employs a modernist perspective to convey familiar Texas imagery in a beautiful and sensuous manner. Regional Connotations: Two Modernists in Cowtown is actually a grand opening for a wonderful new year, and an exhibition worthy of your time. We believe you’ll be enchanted by the works in this show. And when it’s all said and done, maybe it’s not really so hard to see why Fort Worth, like Houston, embraced their mid-century modernists, after all. Bill Reaves President, William Reaves Fine Art
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n January 17 - February 8, 2014 Artist
Title of Work
Date
Medium
Dimensions (inches)
1
Cynthia Brants
Bull-dogging, edition 15/25
1983
aquatint, heliogravure, and softground etching
9 x 11 1/4
2
Cynthia Brants
Capriole, edition 3/25
1969
photogravure
4 3/4 x 6 1/4
3
Cynthia Brants
Courbette, edition 7/25
1969
photogravure
6 1/4 x 4 7/8
4
Cynthia Brants
Cutting Horse, from "Horse and Rider Series", edition 10/10
1974
photogravure
7 5/8 x 11 1/2
5
Cynthia Brants
Equipoise, edition 25
1969
photogravure
6 3/8 x 17
6
Cynthia Brants
Gallop
1972-73
creve and soft-ground etching
5 1/4 x 12 1/4
7
Cynthia Brants
Galloping
no date
color woodcut
11 1/2 x 23
8
Cynthia Brants
Galloping Gold Horse, edition 1/10
no date
soft-ground etching
9 1/8 x 12
9
Cynthia Brants
Horse and Rider
1945
engraving and pochoir
7 5/8 x 9 7/8
10 Cynthia Brants
Hunter, from "Horse and Rider Series", edition 2/10
1974
photogravure
5 3/4 x 8 1/8
11 Cynthia Brants
Leap, edition 11/50
1969
photogravure
5 7/8 x 7 5/8
12 Cynthia Brants
Levade, edition 22/25
1969
viscosity photogravure
9 x 6 3/4
13 Cynthia Brants
Roping, edition 17/25
no date
linocut
8 3/4 x 11 3/4
14 Cynthia Brants
Trotting
1969
direct gravure
6 3/4 x 8 3/4
15 Cynthia Brants
Trotting Horse (Trotting)
1937
color aquatint
5x7
16 Cynthia Brants
Untitled
no date
watercolor and ink on paper
4 x 13 1/4
17 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Abstract of Levade)
no date
etching
11 1/4 x 4 7/8
18 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Horses Running)
no date
woodcut
7 1/4 x 22
19 Cynthia Brants
Outlaw
1982-85
bronze
4 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 4 1/4
20 Cynthia Brants
Trooper's Horse
1982-85
bronze
5 3/4 x 6 1/8 x 1 3/4
21 Cynthia Brants
Caged Bird
1956
color woodcut
18 x 11 5/8
22 Cynthia Brants
Ghost Mining Town (Western Ghost Town), artist proof
no date
color woodcut
15 x 17 1/8
23 Cynthia Brants
Moths in Candle Light, edition 3/5
1992
color etching
8 7/8 x 11 3/4
24 Cynthia Brants
Penelope
no date
serigraph
23 3/4 x 15 1/4
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n January 17 - February 8, 2014 25 Cynthia Brants
Summer Shower
1998
collagraph matrix
15 x 10
26 Cynthia Brants
Summer Shower, artist proof
1998
color collagraph
15 x 10
27 Cynthia Brants
Tattered Petals (Iris), edition 2/10
1993
color etching
11 5/8 x 8 7/8
28 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Horizontal wavy lines, green and blue)
no date
color photo etching
7 1/2 x 9 1/2
29 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Impression of Tree), artist proof
no date
collagraph
13 x 10
30 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Live Oaks in Winter)
no date
copper matrix
8 x 12
31 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Live Oaks in Winter)
no date
color aquatint
8 x 12
32 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Wavy lines, green and yellow)
no date
color collagraph
17 1/4 x 14 7/8
33 Cynthia Brants
War Dance, artist proof
1972
color aquatint etching
8 3/4 x 11 7/8
34 Cynthia Brants
War Dance
1972
color aquatint etching
8 3/4 x 11 7/8
35 Cynthia Brants
Ghost of a King
1952
oil on linen
32 x 19
36 Cynthia Brants
Ghost of a King
1950
aquatint
7 x 4 1/4
37 Cynthia Brants
Polarities, edition 16/20
1993
aquatint
7 7/8 x 9 3/4
38 Cynthia Brants
The Maenad
no date
soft ground etching and engraving
12 1/4 x 7 7/8
39 Cynthia Brants
The Maenad
no date
copper matrix
12 1/4 x 7 7/8
40 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Fine lines and triangles)
no date
copper matrix
5 1/4 x 9
41 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Fine lines and triangles)
no date
direct gravure
5 1/4 x 9
42 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Possibly Venus)
1943
etching
4 x 4 7/8
43 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Round geometric)
no date
color photogravure
9 x 8 1/4
44 Cynthia Brants
Untitled (Stacked cubes)
no date
etching
8 7/8 x 5 3/4
45 Cynthia Brants
Chrysalis House, artist proof
1984
color woodcut
9 1/2 x 11 3/4
46 Cynthia Brants
Court House, edition 12/50
1976
color woodcut
4 1/8 x 4 1/8
47 Cynthia Brants
Dawn in the Desert (Arizona Patio, Saguaro at Sun Up)
1993
aquatint
8 1/8 x 12 1/8
48 Cynthia Brants
Hood River Landscape (Hood River, Oregon)
1950
color woodcut
9 x 18 1/2
49 Cynthia Brants
Jail (Hood County Jail), edition 11/50
1976-78
color woodcut
4 x 3 5/8
50 Cynthia Brants
Jeanine's, edition 7/50
1976-78
color woodcut
3 5/8 x 3 7/8
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n January 17 - February 8, 2014 Artist
Title of Work
Date
Medium
Dimensions (inches)
51 Cynthia Brants
Opera House, edition 33/50
1976-78
color woodcut
3 3/4 x 4
52 Cynthia Brants
The Nutt House, edition 9/50
1976-78
color woodcut
3 1/2 x 4
53 Cynthia Brants
Ridgelea Landscape
1948
graphite
5 7/8 x 11 5/8
54 Cynthia Brants
Acapulco
1948
oil on linen
21 3/4 x 26 5/8
55 Cynthia Brants
Morning
1982
oil on canvas
23 3/4 x 40
56 Cynthia Brants
Up the River
1963
oil on linen
26 1/8 x 20 1/4
57 McKie Trotter
Above & Below
c. 1959
oil on masonite
32 x 48
58 McKie Trotter
Brayer Scape
c. 1959
oil on board
10 x 24
59 McKie Trotter
Earthscape #7
1958-60
oil on board
58 x 40
60 McKie Trotter
Earthscape #14
c. 1959
oil on canvas
38 x 30
61 McKie Trotter
Earthscape with Sea
1963-64
oil on canvas
46 x 50
62 McKie Trotter
Erre (2)
c. 1969
oil on canvas
40 x 36
63 McKie Trotter
Fields
c. 1959
oil on masonite
11 x 14
64 McKie Trotter
Fields #15
c. 1959
oil on masonite
13 x 11
65 McKie Trotter
Flake White
c. 1959
oil on board
5.5 x 16.5
66 McKie Trotter
Forty XXX #2
c. 1959
oil on board
17 x 4
67 McKie Trotter
Four Bushes
c. 1959
collage
4 x 16
68 McKie Trotter
Grotto #2
c. 1959
casein on masonite
47 x 18
69 McKie Trotter
Landscape Southwest
1957
vinyl emulsion
10 x 12
70 McKie Trotter
Natural Bridge
1959
oil on board
72 x 32
71 McKie Trotter
Nocturnal
c. 1959
casein on masonite
48 x 21
72 McKie Trotter
North 40
1957
oil on canvas
20 x 10.5
73 McKie Trotter
Pierced Orange
c. 1959
casein, polymer, gold leaf on masonite
10.25 x 15
74 McKie Trotter
Portent
1956
oil on board
48 x 32
75 McKie Trotter
Red Wall #6
1955
oil on masonite
42 x 25
Regional Connotations: T w o M o d e r n i s t s i n C o w to w n January 17 - February 8, 2014 76
McKie Trotter
Road and Half Arch
c. 1959
casein polymer, oil on board
18 x 14
77
McKie Trotter
Sea III
1959
oil on canvas
40 x 63
78
McKie Trotter
Silverscape #2
1955
oil on masonite
20.375 x 26.625
79
McKie Trotter
Spring S'West #2
1958
oil on masonite
12 x 41
80
McKie Trotter
Stela Squared
c. 1959
oil on masonite
16 x 12
81
McKie Trotter
Tumbleweed Series
1960
watercolor
12 x 18
82
McKie Trotter
Two Levels #6
1964-68
acrylic on canvas
50 x 46
83
McKie Trotter
Two Tumbleweeds with No Moon
c.1958
oil on board
32 x 48
84
McKie Trotter
Untitled 1
1952
oil on masonite
26 x 16
85
McKie Trotter
Untitled 2
c. 1959
casein on masonite
17 x 24
86
McKie Trotter
Untitled 3
1964
acrylic on canvas
32 x 30
87
McKie Trotter
Untitled 4
c. 1959
oil on canvas
48 x 60
88
McKie Trotter
Untitled (blue horizons)
1955
casein on masonite
25.5 x 48
89
McKie Trotter
Untitled (flag)
c. 1959
oil on board
11 x 14
90
McKie Trotter
Untitled (green horizon)
c. 1959
hyplar on canvas
4 x 8.5
91
McKie Trotter
Untitled (green)
c. 1959
oil on masonite
16 x 12
92
McKie Trotter
Untitled (orange, black, gray)
c. 1959
oil on board
5 x 11
93
McKie Trotter
Untitled (orange, red, purple, green)
c. 1959
oil on board
5.25 x 8.25
94
McKie Trotter
Untitled (purple, pink, orange)
c. 1959
oil on masonite
4.75 x 7.75
95
McKie Trotter
Untitled (red, white, green, yellow)
c. 1959
oil on board
5.625 x 20
96
McKie Trotter
Untitled (sea foam)
c. 1959
oil on board
7.5 x 10
97
McKie Trotter
Untitled (stripes on green)
c. 1959
oil on canvas
8 x 10.25
98
McKie Trotter
West
c. 1959
oil on board
8.25 x 3.25
99
McKie Trotter
Winterscape #3
1960
oil on canvas
49 x 60
C y nt h i a Bra nt s
1. Brants, Bulldogging, 1983, edition 15 of 25, aquatint, heliogravure and softground etching, 9x11.25 inches.
2. Brants, Capriole, 1969, edition 3 of 25, photogravure, 4.75x6.25 inches.
4. Brants, Cutting Horse, 1974, edition 10 of 10, photogravure, 7.625x 11.5 inches. 3. Brants, Courbette, 1969, edition 7 of 25, photogravure, 6.25x4.875 inches.
5. Brants, Equipoise, 1969, edition 25, photogravure, 6.375x17 inches.
6. Brants, Gallop, 1972-73, creve and soft-ground etching, 5.25x12.25 inches.
7. Brants, Galloping, color woodcut, 11.5x23 inches.
8. Brants, Galloping Gold Horse, soft ground etching, 9.125x12 inches.
9. Brants, Horse and Rider, 1945, aquatint etching, 7.625x 9.875 inches.
10. Brants, Hunter, from Horse and Rider Series, 1974, edition 2 of 10, photogravure, 5.75x8.125 inches.
11. Brants, Leap, 1969, edition 11 of 50, photogravure, 5.875x7.625 inches.
12. Brants, Levade, 1969, edition 22 of 25, viscosity photogravure, 9x6.75 inches.
13. Brants, Roping, edition 17 of 25, linocut, 8.75x11.75 inches.
14. Brants, Trotting, 1969, direct gravure, 6.75x8.75 inches.
15. Brants, Trotting Horse (Trotting), 1937, color etching, 5x7 inches.
16. Brants, Untitled, watercolor and ink on paper, 4x3.25 inches. 17. Brants, Untitled (Abstract of Levade), color etching, 6.375x 4.875 inches.
18. Brants, Untitled Horses Running, watercolor and ink on paper, 4x3.25 inches.
left 19. Brants, Outlaw, 198285, edition 5 of 10, bronze, 4.25x5.25x4.25 inches.
right 20. Brants, Trooper’s Horse, 1982-85, edition 9 of 10, bronze, 5.75x6.125x1.75 inches.
21. Brants, Caged Bird, 1956, color woodut, 18x11.625 inches.
22. Brants, Ghost Mining Town, artist proof, color woodcut, 15x17.125 inches.
23. Brants, Moths in Candle Light, 1992, edition 3 of 5, color etching, 8.875x11.75 inches.
24. Brants, Penelope, serigraph, 23.75x15.25 inches.
25. Brants, Summer Shower, 1998, collagraph matboard, 15x10 inches.
26. Brants, Summer Shower, 1998, artist proof, color collagraph, 15x10 inches.
27. Brants, Tattered Petals (Iris), 1993, edition 2 of 10, color etching, 11.625x8.875 inches.
28. Brants, Untitled (Horizontal wavy lines, green and blue), color photo etching, 7.5x9.5 inches.
30. Brants, Untitled (Live Oaks in Winter), copper matrix, 8x12 inches.
29. Brants, Untitled (Impression of tree), artist proof, collograph, 13x10 inches.
31. Brants, Untitled (Live Oaks in Winter), color aquatint, 8x12 inches.
33. Brants, War Dance, 1972, artist proof, viscosity color aquatint etching, 8.75x11.875 inches.
32. Brants, Untitled (Horizontal wavy lines, green and blue), color photo etching, 7.5x9.5 inches.
34. Brants, War Dance, 1972, viscosity color aquatint etching, 8.75x11.875 inches.
35. Brants, Ghost of a King, 1952, oil on linen, 32x19 inches.
36. Brants, Ghost of a King, 1950, aquatint, 7x4.25 inches.
37. Brants, Polarities, 1993, edition 16 of 20, copper matrix, 7.875x9.75 inches.
left 38. Brants, The Maenad, soft ground etching and engraving, 12.25x7.875 inches.
right 39. Brants, The Maenad, copper matrix, 12.25x7.875 inches.
40. Brants, Untitled (Fine lines and triangles), copper matrix, 5.25x9 inches.
41. Brants, Untitled (Fine lines and triangles), direct gravure, 5.25x9 inches.
42. Brants, Untitled (Possibly Venus), 1943, etching, 4x4.875 inches.
43. Brants, Untitled (Round geometric), color gravure, 9x8.25 inches.
44. Brants, Untitled (Stacked cubes), etching, 8.875x5.75 inches.
45. Brants, Chrysalis House, 1984, artist proof, watercolor woodcut, 9.5x 11.75 inches.
46. Brants, Court House, 1976, edition 12 of 50, watercolor woodcut, 4.125x4.125 inches.
47. Brants, Dawn in the Desert (Arizona Patio, Saguaro at Sun Up), 1993, color aquatint, 8.125x12.125 inches.
48. Brants, Hood River, Oregon, 1950, color woodcut, 9x18.5 inches.
49. Brants, Jail (Hood County Jail), 1976-78, edition 11 of 50, watercolor woodcut, 4x3.625 inches.
50. Brants, Jeannine’s, 1976-78, edition 7 of 50, watercolor woodcut, 4x3.625 inches.
51. Brants, Opera House, 1976-78, edition 33 of 50, watercolor woodcut, 3.75x4 inches.
52. Brants, The Nutt House, 1976-78, edition 9 of 50, watercolor woodcut, 3.5x4 inches.
53. Brants, Landscape (Ridglea), 1948, graphite, 5.875 x11.625 inches.
54. Brants, Acapulco, 1948, oil on linen, 21.75x26.625 inches.
56. Brants, Up the River, 1963, oil on linen, 26.125x20.25 inches.
55. Brants, Morning, 1982, oil on canvas, 23.75x40 inches.
Cynthia Brants (1924 - 2006)
Selected Biographical and Career Highlights • 1924, Born in Fort Worth, Texas • 1945, Bachelor of Arts, Sarah Lawrence College • 1945, Formed an alliance with other Fort Worth artists, in what would come to be known as The Fort Worth Circle • Mid 1950s until her death, Served on the board of trustees for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth • 1957-58, Taught painting at Sarah Lawrence College • 1972-1973, Taught painting and drawing at Texas Woman’s University •1972, Presented to her Majesty the Queen Mother at the presentation of a portrait by Brants, of Lady Reading to the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, London, England. • 1990, Established a printmaking studio in Granbury, Texas • 2006, Passed away January 11 in Fort Worth, Texas Publications • Beyond the Circle: Cynthia Brants, published by The Old Jail Art Center, 2007 • Off the Edge: The Experimental Prints of Cynthia Brants, published by Flatbed Galleries and the Cynthia Brants Trust, 2009 Selected Exhibitions • 1950, Cynthia Brants: Solo Show, first solo show, Fort Worth Art Association • 1950, 13th Annual Tarrant County Local Artists’ Show, Fort Worth Art Association • 1951, Local Show, Fort Worth Art Association • 1956, The 20th Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Artists of Tarrant County, Fort Worth Art Center • 1970, Guest Exhibition, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, Maine • 1971, Exhibition of Paintings and Gravure by Cynthia Brants, Bodley Gallery, New York CIty, New York • 2007, Beyond the Circle: Cynthia Brants, The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas • 2008, Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas • 2009, Off the Edge: The Experimental Prints of Cynthia Brants, Flatbed Galleries, Austin, Texas
M c K i e Tro tte r
58. Trotter, Brayer Scape, c. 1959, oil on panel, 10x24 inches.
57. Trotter, Above & Below, c. 1959, oil on masonite, 32x48 inches.
59. Trotter, Earthscape #7, 1958-60, oil on board, 58x40 inches.
60. Trotter, Earthscape #14, c. 1959, oil on canvas, 38x30 inches.
61. Trotter, Earthscape with Sea, 1963-64, oil on canvas, 46x50 inches.
62. Trotter, Erre (2), c.1969, oil on canvas, 40x36 inches.
63. Trotter, Fields, c. 1959, oil on masonite, 11x14 inches.
64. Trotter, Fields #15, c. 1959, oil on masonite, 13x11 inches.
65. Trotter, Flake White, c. 1959, oil on panel, 5.5x16.5 inches.
67. Trotter, Four Bushes, c. 1959, collage, 4x16 inches.
66. Trotter, Forty XXX #2, c. 1959, oil on panel, 17x4inches.
68. Trotter, Grotto #2, c. 1959, casein on masonite, 47x18 inches.
69. Trotter, Landscape Southwest, 1957, vinyl emulsion, 10x24 inches.
70. Trotter, Natural Bridge, 1959, oil on board, 72x32 inches.
left 71. Trotter, Nocturnal, c. 1959, casein on masonite, 48x21 inches.
right 72. Trotter, North 40, 1957, oil on canvas, 20x10.5 inches.
73. Trotter, Pierced Orange, c. 1959, casein, polymer, gold leaf on board, 10.25x15 inches.
74. Trotter, Portent, 1956, oil on board, 48x32 inches.
75. Trotter, Red Wall #6, 1955, oil on board, 42x25 inches.
76. Trotter, Road and Half Arch, c. 1959, casein, polymer, oil on panel, 18x14 inches.
77. Trotter, Sea III, 1959, oil on canvas, 40x63 inches.
78. Trotter, Silverscape #2, 1955, oil on board, 20.375x26.625 inches.
79. Trotter, Spring S’West #2, 1958, oil on board, 12x41 inches.
81. Trotter, Tumbleweed Series, 1960, watercolor, 12x18 inches.
80. Trotter, Stela Squared, c. 1959, oil on panel, 16x12 inches.
82. Trotter, Two Levels #6, 1964-68, acrylic on canvas, 50x46 inches.
83. Trotter, Two Tumbleweeds with No Moon, c.1958, oil on board, 32x48 inches.
84. Trotter, Untitled (blue horizons), c. 1959, casein on masonite, 25.5x48 inches.
left 85. Trotter, Untitled (flag), c. 1959, oil on panel, 11x14 inches.
right 87. Trotter, Untitled (green), c. 1959, oil on masonite, 16x12 inches.
86. Trotter, Untitled (green horizon), c. 1959, hyplar on canvas, 4x8.5 inches.
88. Trotter, Untitled (orange, black, gray), c. 1959, oil on panel, 5x11 inches.
89. Trotter, Untitled (orange, red, purple, green), c. 1959, oil on panel, 5.25x8.25 inches.
90. Trotter, Untitled (Purple, Pink, Orange), c. 1959, oil on masonite, 4.75x7.75 inches.
91. Trotter, Untitled (red, white, green, yellow), c. 1959, oil on panel, 5.625x20 inches.
92. Trotter, Untitled (sea foam), c. 1959, oil on masonite, 7.5x10 inches.
93. Trotter, Untitled (stripes on green), c. 1959, oil on canvas, 8x10.25 inches.
94. Trotter, Untitled 1, 1952, oil on board, 26x16 inches.
95. Trotter, Untitled 2, c. 1959, casein on masonite, 17x24 inches.
96. Trotter, Untitled 3, 1964, acrylic on canvas, 32x30 inches.
97. Trotter, Untitled 4, c. 1959, oil on canvas, 47.5x60 inches.
98. Trotter, West, c. 1959, oil on panel, 8.5x3.25 inches.
99. Trotter, Winterscape #3, 1960, oil on canvas, 49x60 inches.
McKie Trotter (1918-1999)
Selected Biographical and Career Highlights • 1918, Born in Manchester, Georgia • 1940, BA, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia • 1943-45, Infantry Captain and P.O.W. • 1950, MFA, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia • 1948-53, Instructor and Professor at Texas Wesleyan College, Fort Worth, Texas • 1953-88, Professor of Art at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas • 1999, Dies at Fort Worth residence Selected Exhibitions • 1946-47, Pepsi-Cola Company’s Third annual Exhibition: Paintings of the Year, New York, National Academy of Design • 1949-55, Fort Worth Art Association Local Artists’ Exhibition • 1950-58, Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Art • 1951-53, Texas Fine Arts Association General Exhibition, Austin, Texas • 1954, Young American Paintings, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York • 1960, Southwestern Art: A Sampling of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Dallas Museum of Art • 1961-67, Annual Exhibition of Artists of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Art Center Selected Public Collections • Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas • Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas • Murray State College, Tishomingo, Oklahoma • Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth • Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas • Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Glossary of Printmaking Terms print An image that has been impressed on a support, usually paper, by a process capable of being repeated. Most printmaking techniques (a major exception being digital prints) require the previous design and manufacture of a printing surface. The five primary types of print techniques are relief, intaglio, planographic, screenprint, and digital. aquatint An intaglio process by which tones may be achieved in an etching; used primarily for the creation of large areas of tonal shading. In aquatint, small grains of resin are sprinkled on the surface of the plate, which is then heated to affix the particles to the surface. When the plate is immersed in the acid bath, the resin protects its surface, so that the acid only “bites” the spaces between the grains. This leaves (depending on particle size) a fine or coarse network of lines and crevices which hold ink, creating an area of tone. When printed, the tonal effects are similar to a watercolor wash. collagraph A hybrid technique in which various elements (cardboard, metal plates, natural materials, etc.) are adhered to a printing plate, which may be inked and printed in a relief or intaglio method, or even printed without being inked for a purely embossed impression. edition A number of printed images, or impressions, from the same master plate or block using the same ink colors and printing methods, as established by the artist and/or publisher. The process of numbering individual impressions from an edition only became widespread in the twentieth century. The impressions in such a “limited” edition are usually signed and numbered progressively, for instance 1/50, 2/50, etc., for a total edition of fifty impressions; after the total is reached, the plate or stone is “cancelled” or destroyed. engraving An intaglio process in which a plate is marked or incised directly with a burin or other metalmarking tool. No acid is used in this process since the design is dug out by hand. An engraved line can range from very deep and wide, to lighter and thinner and is often characterized by a pointed end signaling the exit of the “v” shaped burin from the metal. An engraved plate is inked and printed in the same manner as other intaglio prints, in which the engraved lines are filled with ink and the surface is usually wiped clean. When put through a
roller press under great pressure, the paper is forced into the engraved lines, transferring the ink and creating a slightly raised line in the printed impression, along with an embossed platemark, caused by the pressure of the edge of the metal printing plate. etching In contrast to engraving, in this type of intaglio print the artist uses acid to cut into the plate. Lines and/or tonal areas of an image have been corroded, or “bitten”, into the surface of a metal plate by the action of a corrosive agent, called a mordant. Traditionally nitric acid has been used, but increasingly less toxic materials are being introduced, such as ferric chloride. A metal plate is first covered with an acid-resistant substance (ground) through which the image is drawn with a needle or other tool, exposing the bare metal. When immersed in the mordant, only those exposed areas are subject to its action. The metal plate is therefore “carved” or “etched” by the acid rather than by a tool directly in the metal. Recently, photopolymer etching has been developed, whereby a drawing, photograph, or digital image is transferred to a photosensitive polymer plate and processed into a relief or intaglio printing plate. heliogravure A printmaking method of making a photo-etched or photogravure plate using an aquatint texture directly on the plate to create tone. impression A single printed image (usually on paper) from a printing surface. Multiple impressions may be printed from the same etching plate, woodblock, lithographic stone, or other surface. intaglio (from the Italian word Intagliare, to carve or incise) A category of printmaking in which the surface of a printing plate has been incised with a design by one or a mixture of techniques. In order to print the image, ink is applied and wiped across the surface of the plate, filling the recessed areas. Usually the excess ink is then cleaned off the unworked surface of the plate. When printed under great pressure, the paper is forced into those incised marks, thus picking up the ink and often creating ridges and raised areas in the final printed impression. Types of intaglio prints are engraving, etching, aquatint, and mezzotint. linocut/linoleum cut A relief process in printmaking, like a woodcut, where the artist carves the design out of the linoleum or linoleum mounted onto wood. What remains is
Glossary of Printmaking Terms (continued) printed, rather than what is cut away. Because linoleum is a softer material than wood, artists generally cut (carved) their own blocks, rather than relying on the services of a professional cutter. The technique was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. lithograph A planographic (or flat) printing process based on the principle that oil and water repel each other. The lithographer creates a design directly on a stone or smooth plate with a greasy material, such as crayon, and chemically fixes it to the surface. The stone is dampened with water, which, repelled by the greasy medium, only settles in the blank spaces where there is no design. Thus the printing ink adheres only to the areas where the design was drawn. It is considered the most draftsmanlike of printmaking processes for its ability to preserve the artist’s gestures so accurately. matrix The base from which the print is made. This can be anything - a standard metal plate or lithographic stone, a potato or vinyl record, a stencil anything from which you print. photo-etching/photogravure An intaglio printmaking process in which an image is produced on an etching plate by photographic means (see also Heliogravure). pochoir A printing process using stencils, originally used to simulate hand-coloring. serigraph A printing process using stencils to block out areas which are then printed through silk, other fabric or metal mesh (screen). Several different screens may be used to print an image in several colors. Also called Screenprint or Silkscreen. soft-ground etching In printmaking, an etching technique where a soft ground is laid on the metal plate. The artist draws onto a piece of paper which is laid down on top of the ground. The ground adheres to the paper where the pencil or other tool has pressed down into it through the paper and pulls away when the paper is lifted. The resulting “marked” plate is placed in an acid-bath where the acid “bites” into the more exposed areas where the ground has been “lifted”. The line created is often soft and grainy.
woodcut (or woodblock) A relief process where the image or design is left raised above what is carved out of the wood. In order to print impressions, ink is rolled onto the surface of the cut block, printing only the areas left on the surface; the cut-away areas do not print. A printing press may be used, or the impressions may be printed by hand, using a wooden spoon or other tool. What is not carved is printed.
Texas Art E a r ly Modern Contemporary William Reaves Fine Art 2313 Brun Street • Houston, Texas • 77019 Tel: 713.521.7500 Email: INFO@reavesart.com www.reavesart.com