print
- Museum number
- 2008,7069.28
- Description
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Stairway leading up the side of a Mayan pyramid. 1939
Colour aquatint
- Production date
- 1939
- Dimensions
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Height: 160 millimetres
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Width: 188 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- One of the prints in the portfolio 'Tres aguafuertes en color' printed in the Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, and published in Mexico City in 1939 in an edition of 100. The BM also has the original portfolio covers and text, which accompanied the three plates, written by Francisco Díaz de León. The plates are not titled in the portfolio text or on the sheets. See Ittmann 2006, pp.102-3.
Text from 'Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints 1910-1960', Dawn Adès and Alison McClean, with the assistance of Laura Campbell, edited by Mark McDonald, BMP, 2009.
These three prints are among the earliest examples of the colour aquatint technique in Mexico. In the booklet introducing Orozco Romero's prints, the artist and printmaker Francisco Díaz de León explains that even experienced artists avoided the colour aquatint technique because the process was complex and involved knowledge of how to ink plates so that colours did not come into contact with each other. Artists found the process arduous and time consuming, especially as collectors had less interest in buying cheap prints. Having earlier worked in a variety of other printmaking techniques, Orozco Romero was the natural printmaker to experiment with the colour aquatint process .
These prints also reflect the artist's affinity with modernism through the use of bold colours, clear lines and open surfaces. Each of the prints uses several colours, including black which acts as shadow. Printed in green, brown, black and grey, the first print of the three depicts a Mayan temple with the geometric lines. The cloud above the temple resembles an eye, a motif commonly used in Surrealism. In the other two, figures dance or embrace each other.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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2009/10 Oct-April, BM, Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints, cat 17
2010/11 Nov-Feb, Nottingham, Djanogly Gallery, Revolution on Paper
2011 June-Aug, Newcastle, Hatton Gallery, Revolution on Paper
- Acquisition date
- 2012
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2008,7069.28
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 2009,AFBMLoan,3.39 (AFBM Loan Number)
