Sovereign (State 2)
Barbara Rossi
American, 1940–2023
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.
Medium
Etching and aquatint on paper
Dimensions
composition: 11 7/8 × 8 7/8" (30.1 × 22.6 cm); sheet: 15 1/2 × 12 1/2" (39.4 × 31.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Kohler Foundation
Accession
545.2021
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
