Opossum (plate, folio 37 verso) from A Bestiary
James Brown
American, 1951–2020
1990
A small linoleum cut of an opossum’s curled tail printed in an illustrated book, using the bold, reductive language of linocut to suggest the animal and its mannerisms.
On a wide white page the dark square print immediately draws the eye: a single, scratchy yellowish line curls like a tail against a black field, spare, tactile, and quietly intimate opposite a few lines of type.
Part of a late-20th-century revival of handcrafted illustrated books, this piece links the medieval bestiary tradition to contemporary printmaking by showing how simple carved marks can carry narrative and character.
Medium
Linoleum cut from an illustrated book with twenty-nine linoleum cuts (two with pochoir and two with letterpress) and seven woodcuts
Dimensions
composition: 5 1/16 × 5 1/16" (12.8 × 12.8 cm); page: 14 13/16 × 10 13/16" (37.6 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Accession
29.1991.15
Palette
Exhibitions
