Birds in Flight
Jacques Villon
French, 1875–1963
1958
A color lithograph in which Villon reduces birds to overlapping, angular planes of vivid color to evoke the movement and rhythm of flight.
Your eye is swept across a shallow, jewel-toned stage where origami-like bird shapes—sharp, triangular and layered—cut through geometric fields of blue, purple and warm orange, producing a shimmering, kinetic effect.
Late in his career, Villon combines Cubist fragmentation with a lyrical use of color to show how mid-20th-century printmakers translated motion and spatial complexity into bold, abstracted lithographs.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
composition: 11 15/16 x 16 1/8" (30.4 x 41 cm); sheet: 16 3/4 x 21 15/16" (42.5 x 55.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Gérald Cramer
Accession
414.1958
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
