Sovereign (State 2)

Barbara Rossi

1970

An etching and aquatint in which Barbara Rossi stitches together bulbous, tongue- and glove-like forms into a hybrid, mask-like figure that uses surreal humor to unsettle ideas of the face and identity.

At first glance you see a stacked, fleshy assemblage rendered in muted greens, roses, and ochres, its delicate stippling and fine etched lines giving the bizarre, cartoonish appendages a strangely intimate, tactile presence.

Created in 1970, the print stretches intaglio techniques toward psychological, surreal figuration—bringing a playful, bodily grotesquerie associated with the Chicago Imagist moment into contemporary printmaking and expanding what etching and aquatint could express.

Palette

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Prints by Sculptors

1975

New Photography 3: Paul Graham, Barbara Norfleet, and Thomas Roma

1987

Surrealist Prints from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art

1987