print;
portfolio
- Museum number
- 2010,7101.1.1-7
- Title
- Series: Motto
- Description
-
A portfolio of seven linocuts, with a title-sheet, an epigraph sheet with a four-line poem by Bertolt Brecht and a colophon sheet, presented within a portfolio of light brown linen boards, with the title 'Motto' blindprinted on the front cover; the images are abstracted with vestiges of representation. 1981-2
1. A peacock-type figure and mirror
2. A dagger, heart and outline of factory
3. A vote being cast in ballot box with screw
4. A bent champagne glass
5. A knife thrust in the ear
6. Open mouth with protruding tongue
7. Female form and tongue
- Production date
-
1981-1982
-
2010 (published)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 150 millimetres (image)
-
Height: 440 millimetres (portfolio)
-
Height: 410 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 102 millimetres
-
Width: 300 millimetres
-
Width: 320 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The poem by Bertolt Brecht reads: ‘Seated up in the boat’s bows, as you/ Notice the leak down at the other end/ Better not turn your eyes away, my friend/ For you are not outside Death’s field of view’.
The set of seven prints loosely follows the seven deadly sins and was provoked by the artist’s disenchantment with the political Left’s embrace of ‘champagne socialism’.
None of the prints is titled. The blocks were cut in 1981-82 but not printed in an edition until 2010.
Printed by Graham Bignell, Standpoint Studios, London in an edition of 10.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2010
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2010,7101.1.1-7