Untitled from 1999
Jannis Kounellis
Greek, 1936–2017
1999
A small intaglio print—combining etching, drypoint, aquatint, and chine-collé—in which Kounellis emphasizes the physical act of making through dense, worked marks.
A dark, irregular mass of ink sits at the center of a wide margin, its surface scored, smudged, and variegated so the sheet reads like a weathered, tactile landscape of gestures and touch.
By translating Arte Povera’s concern with material presence and process into printmaking, Kounellis makes the artist’s hand and the work’s physical production itself the subject within a medium normally associated with reproducibility.
Medium
One from a portfolio of twelve etching, drypoint, and aquatints with chiné colle (one with blind embossing) and four letterpress prints
Dimensions
plate: 5 5/16 × 7 5/8" (13.5 × 19.4 cm); sheet: 13 3/4 × 15 1/8" (35 × 38.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of John Baldessari, Catie and Donald Marron, and Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer
Accession
1675.2015.7
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
