Gordon Newton

“Six Prints 1972” Hand Printed Black & White Lithographs

1972

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "I. Traces grotesques" is an Artist’s Proof Lithograph. “Proofs” are either pulled or printed, and the artist has the option to work out the color and quality issues as they come out of the process. The only real difference between the two is the restricted quantity of prints bearing the AP designation and not the quality of the print. This lithograph is signed and titled by the artist, Jean Dubuffet, which indicates his complete satisfaction with the print. It is from 1958 and a perfect example of his style, “Art Brut.” His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced what is called “low art”, art by non-academically trained artists. It is sometimes referred to as “outsider art.” He did study briefly at the Academie Julian, Paris, but eventually followed his own aesthetics which eschewed traditional standard of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. This lithograph expresses the beauty he found in the meandering spontaneous black line. Jean Dubuffet began painting at the age of seventeen and studied briefly at the Academie Julian, Paris. He painted off and on for the next 20 years. It was not until 1942 in the midst of WWII in France that he began the work which has distinguished him as an outstanding innovator in postwar Europe. It is said of his work that “he looked to the margins of the everyday – the art of prisoners, psychics, the uneducated, and the institutionalized – to liberate his own creativity and coining the term ‘Art Brut’.” Art Brut is a French term that translates as ‘raw art’, to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art which is made outside the academic tradition of fine art. His paintings from the early forties in brightly colored oils were soon followed by works in which he employed such unorthodox materials as cement, plaster, tar and asphalt-scraped, craved and cut and drawn upon with a rudimentary, spontaneous line. Dubuffet worked in France and exhibited from the early forties on. He was included in the 1946 Pierre Matisse...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY Soft pastel colors in floating smudges lay between and around lyrical abstract geometric and organic forms giving a diaphanous color and shape harmony to the work...

"Earthcore" is an abstract of a familiar image ... a view of earth sliced in half usually as an explanation of the many layers of spaceship earth. This print is more than its title. It is rich in its depth of color and texture. Upon close inspection there is much activity on the surface which continually adds to its visual complexity. The name given to this print process is “Collagraph” It is made by glueing different materials to cardboard and creating a kind of collage. During the inking process the ink will rub off surfaces that are smooth or higher and stay on surfaces that hold more ink, at edge and at lower points thus creating the image. To protect the plate through the printing process it’s sealed with one or more layers of shellac. A collagraph plate is quite sensitive and will be deformed by the pressure of the printing press. Joyce Tilley Nagel...

"Dropout" is one of the monoprints that Joyce Nagel so enjoyed creating. This monoprint is a one-off abstract print. The arrangement of shapes and colors p...