Dorothea Rockburne
Canadian, b. 1932
Locus Series #3, 1972
Relief etching, aquatint, pencil and white oil paint on folded Strathmore Rag Bristol paper
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.)
Frame: 45.5 x 35.5 x 2.5 in. (115.57 x 90.17 x 6.35 cm.)
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil
Edition 19/42
Parasol Press Ltd., pub.
Lot ID141655
Estimate
6,000—8,000 USD
The present work is the third print in the Locus Series by Dorothea Rockburne. To create the series, the artist folded the sheets before they went through the press, allowing the edges and folds to create embossed lines. The aquatint, a velvety off-white, was then printed over the upper portions of paper. This series was published by Parasol Press and printed by famed intalgio printshop Crown Point Press. Other works from this series including other impressions of this exact print can be found in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Dia Art Foundation, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and more.
Dorothea Rockburne is an American artist whose works merge aspects of geometry, nature, and Egyptology. Employing a range of media, Rockburne arranges her materials using a logic based in both mathematics and symbology. “Even though it has an intellectual basis and mathematical structure, my work comes from a deep emotional source within me,” she explained. Born on October 18, 1932 in Montreal, Canada, she trained as a painter before attending Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the early 1950s. While at the college, Rockburne studied under Merce Cunningham, the mathematician Max Dehn, and John Cage. Relocating to New York, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art cataloging the Egyptian Antiquities collection, and as Robert Rauschenberg’s studio manager. By the 1970s, Rockburne was producing works which addressed the physical properties of an artistic medium. The artist continues to live and work in New York, NY. Today, her works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.
Provenance:
Gift from the artist to the present owner