Glenn Ligon Untitled (Four Etchings) 1992

  • Not on view

Ligon took advantage of the velvety textures and embossments that are possible with aquatint and etching to create the densely layered surfaces in these prints. Here he quotes from texts by two preeminent African American writers: Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928) and Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man (1952). By alternately highlighting and obscuring the black words and letters against white and black linen, he has underscored the authors' thoughts about being a black person in a white society. The prints belong to a larger, signature body of text-based works on paper and canvas in which he manipulated the same heavy, stenciled typeface.

Gallery label from New to the Print Collection: Matisse to Bourgeois, June 13, 2012–January 7, 2013.
Medium
Series of four etching and aquatints
Dimensions
plate (each): 23 9/16 x 15 3/4" (59.8 x 40 cm); sheet (each): 25 1/8 x 17 3/8" (63.8 x 44.2 cm)
Publisher
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Printer
Burnet Editions, New York
Edition
45
Credit
Gift of Gwen and Peter Norton
Object number
1131.2011.a-d
Copyright
© 2023 Glenn Ligon
Department
Drawings and Prints
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