Sorcery (3rd Hour)
Kiki Smith
American, born Germany 1954
2019
An aquatint and etching in which Kiki Smith conjures a haunting, bodily presence—rippling concentric forms and scratched marks that suggest eyes, hearts, or tree rings and point to ritual and transformation.
You’re first arrested by two concentric, target-like vortices at the center, set into a field of watery gray washes, diagonal incisions and granular splatters that make the image feel simultaneously anatomical, elemental, and uncanny.
By pushing aquatint and etching toward layered, ghostly atmospheres, Smith shows how printmaking can register memory, the body’s interior, and mythic or ritual states, expanding the expressive reach of contemporary prints.
Medium
Aquatint and etching
Dimensions
plate: 21 13/16 × 29 11/16" (55.4 × 75.4 cm); sheet: 26 15/16 × 35 1/16" (68.5 × 89.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer
Accession
128.2020
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
