Beaver (plate, folio 71 verso) from A Bestiary
James Brown
American, 1951–2020
1990
A linoleum-cut plate from James Brown’s artist’s book A Bestiary in which the artist pares the beaver down to a bold, tactile form that dialogues with the accompanying text.
What first strikes you is the dark, almost pebble-shaped oval set within a warm olive square opposite a dense block of letterpress, its flat, hand-cut edges and subtle surface marks making the image feel both primitive and intimate.
By combining traditional printmaking techniques with spare, abstracted animal imagery, Brown links modernist reduction to the medieval bestiary and shows how handcrafted books can renew narrative illustration in contemporary art.
Medium
Linoleum cut from an illustrated book with twenty-nine linoleum cuts (two with pochoir and two with letterpress) and seven woodcuts
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 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
29.1991.32
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
