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Convocation
Artist: Fred Wilson (American, born 1954)
Publisher: Crown Point Press , San Francisco, CA
Date: 2004
Dimensions:
(Sheet) H: 30 1/2 in. (77.5 cm); W: 34 in. (86.4 cm);
(Image): 20 in. (50.8 cm); W: 24 in. (61 cm)
Medium: Spit bite aquatint with color aquatint and direct gravure.
Place of Origin: San Francisco, CA
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Carl B. Spitzer Fund
Object number: 2004.40
Label Text:This series of four expressionistic etchings marks Fred Wilson’s first foray into printmaking at a time when his artistic approach expanded to making works inspired by his own imagination. Although Wilson is best known a conceptual artist who creates site-specific installations, these prints vary greatly from his earlier practice that involved the rearrangement of museum objects and archival documents to reveal hidden histories. Instead, intrigued by the idea of creating black ‘spots’, Wilson made these works by dripping etching acid onto copper plates to create small splashes. Relying on a process that introduced the element of chance, each composition in the series varies in its effects, though in general the dense images suggest microbes under a microscope or, alternatively, cosmological views.
Three of the prints, Convocation, Exchange, and Arise!, include thought bubbles containing short phrases spoken by black characters in novels and plays written by notable white male literary figures, such as Herman Melville, William Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and Norman Mailer. Each quote contains strong racial connotations, as in the statements in the print Arise!, which include, “The tragedy will lie in the color black” and “I fear your sparkling darkness.” Examples of Wilson’s successful effort to translate his interests in the construction of racial identity into a new medium, these works are a milestone in his artistic practice.
Three of the prints, Convocation, Exchange, and Arise!, include thought bubbles containing short phrases spoken by black characters in novels and plays written by notable white male literary figures, such as Herman Melville, William Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and Norman Mailer. Each quote contains strong racial connotations, as in the statements in the print Arise!, which include, “The tragedy will lie in the color black” and “I fear your sparkling darkness.” Examples of Wilson’s successful effort to translate his interests in the construction of racial identity into a new medium, these works are a milestone in his artistic practice.
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In Collection(s)