Man, Spirit,and Mask (triptych)

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Man, Spirit,and Mask (triptych)

Artist Willie Cole American, born 1955

Publisher The Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (RCIPP), New Brunswick, New Jersey

Printer Printed by Galamander Press; master printer Randy Hemminghaus: master papermaker Gail Deery.

Date1999

DimensionsOverall ((dealer measurement)): 39 3/16 x 26 1/2 in. (996 x 673mm)

MediumPhoto etching, embossing, hand coloring, silkscreen, lemon juice, scorching and woodcut. Left panel (panel 1) Photo etching, embossing and hand coloring Paper: Sommerset Antique White Plate no. 1 photo etching printed in brown Plate no. 2 embossing with hand coloring (lemon juice) and scorching Middle panel (panel 2) Silkscreen with lemon juice and scorching Paper: Rutger's HMP 100% cotton Right panel (panel 3) Photo etching and woodcut Paper: Sommerset Antique White Plate no. 1 photo etching printed in Sepia Plate no. 2 woodcut printed in white Plate no. 3 woodcut printed in silver Plate no. 4 woodcut printed in opaque white Plate no. 5 woodcut printed in black

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

2000.50A

Not on View

Published ReferencesThis is a new work and has not yet received critical review. However the following sources comment on his technique and iconography. exhibition catalogues: c.f. Siedell, Daniel, Black Image and Identity. Lincoln, Nebraska: Sheldon Memorial Art GallerExhibition HistoryTMA New Acquisitions in Graphic Arts, Dec. 21, 2001-March 30, 2002Label TextWillie Cole offers piercing social commentary without sacrificing aesthetic beauty. This triptych includes some of Cole’s signature elements: the self-portrait, the use of scorching, and the domestic iron. The first panel presents Cole’s face, embossed with the outline of an iron. The steam vents, hand-colored with lemon juice, suggest scarification or branding of the face, a practice in many African tribal traditions. In the second panel, the image of the iron has literately been scorched into the paper. Lemon juice is again added, reversing its domestic use as a treatment for scorching when ironing clothes. The third panel flips the artist’s face upside down, overprinted with the iron image and transformed into an African mask. Cole wrote about the iron, “My relationship with it began in 1988 when I spotted one on the street near my Newark studio, all flattened and discarded…. Right away I saw it as an African mask, more specifically a Dan [people of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire] mask.…I brought it into my studio, photographed it, and made a list of all the things it suggested to me,” including the chattel slave trade, domestic servitude, and the spirituality of heat/fire/scorching.