Swan Engraving Blue

Artist Frank Stella (American, 1936–2024)

Publisher Tyler Graphics Ltd. (American)

Date1983

MediumEtching, relief, and engraving

DimensionsUnframed: 38 3/4 x 31 1/2 inches (98.43 x 80.01 cm)
Framed: 46 5/16 x 38 7/8 inches (117.63 x 98.73 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Print Society

Object numberF89-2

Signed(b.r., pencil):"17/30 F. Stella '83"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Gifts to the Print Collection in Recent Years, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, November 12, 1993 - January 9, 1994.

Inked in Time: Six Centuries of Printed Masterpieces, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, February 22, 1989 - May 31 1998.

Print Society 20th Anniversary Exhibition, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, October 25, 1998 - January 10, 1999.

Print Lovers at 30, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, May 3, 2008 - July 20, 2008.

Gallery Label

Stella's early prints were like his paintings: austere, rigidly geometric and emotionally detached. During a prolific experimental period, Stella's prints became more visually complex, combining mottled color, meandering lines and layers of texture and asymmetrical forms. The Swan Engravings series, to which this print belongs, was inspired by the Swan Engraving Company, which supplied laser-cut shapes of magnesium and aluminum used to fabricate Stella's relief paintings of the 70s and 80s. Some of the metal remnants from that process were combined with other recycled materials to print the complex image of Swan Engraving Blue.

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