By Barbara Trupp
Located in Surfside, FL
(20th century)
Theban Archaeopteryx Lithographica
lithograph
edition of 15 signed
Barbara Trupp was born in Nebraska and spent her childhood in
Montana. She studied at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Alberta,
Canada; the University of Puget Sound; and the University of Michigan.
Theban Archeaopteryx Lithographica was printed at the Plucked Chicken
Press in Evanston, Illinois.
“The stone is the shape of the Rosetta Stone, unlocking language, [a]
key to the past,” says Tripp. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you came across
a stone, chipped at it, and revealed layer upon layer of visual history,
images from sophisticated Egypt back to Paleozoic trilobites?
“Lithography stones, quarried from the Jura Mountains of Bavaria,
reach us from the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic, bearing fossils of the
first birds. The bird fossil looked like it was doing an Egyptian dance, and
that reminded me of the wall paintings of the House of Eternity in Thebes.
‘Paint the walls brightly, cheerfully, so that our souls will take the form of
birds and fly,’ said Sennefer, the mayor of Thebes, in the tomb of his
wife Meryet.
“Fossils and archeological evidence provide proof that others existed
before us, and allow us to see their thoughts. The past is with us. Like
Archaeopteryx, Sennefer and Meryet still fly through eternity, though
frozen in stone. Above them is the protective eye of Horus. Trilobites
represent a breathtaking explosion of Cambrian life forms. Between Archaeopteryx and Egypt, I wanted mammals.
Petroglyphs. Human marks. Because my right hand is the trained hand, I drew with my left, childlike. And
I drew with a stick, dipped in asphaltum, and a ratty old brush...
Category
20th Century Art Deco Barbara Trupp Art