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Image

RISDM 2006-17.tif
RISDM 2006-17.tif
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  • RISDM 2006-17.tif
  • RISDM 2006-17.tif

Julie Mehretu

Local Calm

Description

Maker

Julie Mehretu (American, b. Ethiopia, b.1970)

Title

Local Calm

Year

2005

Medium

  • Sugar-lift aquatint with color aquatint,
  • spit-bite aquatint,
  • soft and hard-ground etching and engraving on Gampi chine collé on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Sugar-lift aquatint with color aquatint,
  • spit-bite aquatint,
  • soft and hard-ground etching and engraving on Gampi chine collé on paper

Materials

ink

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 90.2 x 118.8 cm (35 1/2 x 46 3/4 inches)

Identification

Edition

24/35

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2006.17

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Primacy of Paper
Recent Works from the Collection
Jan 15, 2010 – Jun 20, 2010

Label copy

Julie Mehretu has recently received wide acclaim for her huge canvases and wall drawings, which incorporate layers of dynamic line work. Sources for Mehretu’s vocabulary are wide ranging, and include architectural plans, comics, graffiti, Renaissance engravings, and Eastern calligraphy. This print, which is small relative to her usual scale, conveys immense illusionistic expanse; within this expanse, a drama takes place that belies the “calm” of the title. In a 2003 interview, Mehretu stated:

My initial impulse and investigation was to try and develop, through drawing, a language that could communicate different types of narratives and build a cityscape, each mark having its own character, a modus operandi of social behavior. As they continued to grow and develop in drawing I wanted to see them layered; to build a different kind of dimension of space and time into the narratives.

,

(“A Conversation with Julie Mehretu,” recorded on the website of the exhibition Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; May 2-December 7, 2003; www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/passages/mehretu-conversation.html)

Use & Feedback

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Tombstone

Julie Mehretu (American, b. Ethiopia, b.1970)
Local Calm, 2005
Sugar-lift aquatint with color aquatint, spit-bite aquatint, soft and hard-ground etching and engraving on Gampi chine collé on paper
Sheet: 90.2 x 118.8 cm (35 1/2 x 46 3/4 inches)
Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2006.17

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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