print
- Museum number
- 1990,0303.37
- Title
- Object: Warrior II
- Description
-
Tank interior with open observation hatch, through which figure can be seen; with black protruding form. August 1956
Sugar-lift aquatint printed in monochrome
- Production date
- 1956
- Dimensions
-
Height: 974 millimetres
-
Width: 600 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from Frances Carey & Antony Griffiths, 'Avant-garde British Printmaking 1914-1960', BMP, 1990, no.205.
When shown at the Venice Biennale in 1960, the stated edition size was 25. But a typed note initialled by the artist on the back of the frame states: "An edition has never been printed. The plate was mislaid soon after proofing by Frelaut in Paris in 1956."
The image on this, and on three other very large plates also made in Paris in August 1956, is of a human head seen through a tank observation hatch. The contrast of the vulnerable organic head and the plate armour links the ideas of insecurity and aggression, and is not dissimilar in concept to Henry Moore's 'Helmet Head' sculptures of 1950.
Additional Comment:
This print was made in August 1956 alongside four equally large and formally similar works: 'Antithesis', 'Harlequin', 'Study for Sculpture' and 'Warrior I' (LeGrove 163, 165, 179, 181 and 182; for impressions see BM 2018,7075.161, 163, 176 and 178). In September all five plates were taken to Paris where they were proofed by Jacques Frélaut at the Atelier Lacourière. Each was pulled in black, as here, but two colour proofs of this image were also made, with additions in gouache on several impressions. A typed note on the frame of one copy reads: 'An edition has never been made. The plate was mislaid soon after proofing in Paris in 1956'.
A colour impression of this print has since been acquired by the Department , see 2001,0520.1.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990/1 Sept.-Jan., BM, 'Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960', no.205
- Acquisition date
- 1990
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1990,0303.37