M25928: Two Poems with Birds
Prints
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- M25928
- People
-
Fred Becker, American (Oakland, CA 1913 - 2004 Amherst, MA)
- Title
- Two Poems with Birds
- Other Titles
- Series/Book Title: Valentines to the Wide Woeld, Poems, by Mona Van Duyn
- Classification
- Prints
- Work Type
- Date
- 1959
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/71862
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Softground etching with stopout, printed in relief
- Technique
- Relief print
- Dimensions
- block: 17.6 x 9.8 cm (6 15/16 x 3 7/8 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- Signed: Fred Becker
- inscription: lower margin below block edge, to left and right, graphite (two kinds), hand written, signed, in artist's hand: "Two Poems with Birds" Fred Becker [signature evidently applied at a different time, since the graphite is different]
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- [Susan Teller Gallery, New York, New York], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, January 13, 2004,
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, George R. Nutter Fund
- Copyright
- © 1954 Fred Becker
- Accession Year
- 2004
- Object Number
- M25928
- Division
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Contact
- am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
- Description
- This print was published late in the artist's life, but the dealer from whom it was purchased says that this is an earlier proof impression. While described by the dealer as a woodcut, it is almost certainly a relief cut in a homogeneous (rather than grained) substance, and even with this more precise identification, it presents certain mysteries. How did the artist impose the texture on the block that results in the gray background tone? Why do the cuts that form the black-printing "plateaus" not inflect the grain in the same way that the pressure along the tool stroke that formed the white strokes did? Etc. The technique is mysterious but the composition delightful, and an excellent representative of the developing mode of abstraction in American art in the 1950s.
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu