THE COLLECTION
Chris Burden (American, born 1946)
The Portfolio
Coyote Stories
- Date:
- 2005
- Medium:
- Portfolio of ten etchings, five with aquatint, and 25 digital prints with chine collé
- Dimensions:
- plate: (see child records); sheet (each): 14 15/16 x 12 3/8" (38 x 31.5 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Monroe Wheeler Fund
- MoMA Number:
- 82.2011.1-36
- Copyright:
- © 2013 Chris Burden
Print/Out
February 19–May 14, 2012
A performance and installation artist, Burden based this portfolio of digital prints and etchings on his encounters with coyotes near his home in Topanga Canyon, just outside Los Angeles. Working at Jacob Samuel's Santa Monica print studio, Burden wrote the stories on legal pads, which Samuel printed digitally to directly reproduce the artist's handwriting. For the etchings, Samuel suggested that Burden work on the surfaces of the copper plates without traditional etching tools; experimenting with this idea, the artist pressed objects described in the stories, such as knives or a wallet, into the soft ground.
Print/Out
, February 19–May 14, 2012Glenn Lowry: Even before their collaboration, publisher/printer Jacob Samuel had long admired the work of Chris Burden, an artist known for dramatic and physically demanding performance pieces.
Publisher/Printer, Jacob Samuel: He said, "I have an idea for a project. I've had many encounters, personal encounters with coyotes." He said he’d like to write up these encounters that he’d had with coyotes. Originally, I thought okay, he'll do some drawings of coyotes. And then he said, "Well, I don't want there to be any pictures of coyotes. I want the coyote to be in the imagination."
Chris made my studio his studio, and for a period of just about three months, he came to the studio at least twice a week and stayed for eight hours. We used just about every etching process, other than drypoint to do this project.
Glenn Lowry: The first coyote story involved a set of knives the artist had inherited from his mother.
Jacob Samuel: And a coyote stole them. He had one of the knives left, and so he traced the knife, and I etched it and he really liked the way that looked. It was a very good translation of his work into print. And very much in keeping of his working process and his interests.
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