Medium: Etching
Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 7 1/8 inches (Plate) 13 5/8 x 11 1/8 inches (Sheet)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Japanese, 1966
Edition: of 20

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer / Marketing and Digital Content Specialist):

Obata’s piece is delightfully charming. It’s as though I am looking through a window I wiped condensation off of to better see the snowfall outside. A pet dog is even reflected in one of the streaking, water droplets. The winter scene feels comforting and cozy, complete with a tiny bird flying around the dormant trees in the snow.

Series: Tarot
Medium: Etching, aquatint
Dimensions: 4 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches (image) 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches (sheet)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Japanese, 1986
Date finished: 2016
Edition: of 20

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer / Marketing and Digital Content Specialist):

Takeda’s depiction of the death card is filled with eyes wide open, including on the intense central figure with their hands gracefully crossed, staring straight back at the viewer. In tarot, drawing the death card isn’t always a bad thing. Death is a normal part of life and can mean a new beginning as well as an end to something. As the year winds closer to its own death, this etching is a reminder to be alert and conscious about what in our own lives needs to come to a close and what could use more of our energy. 

Medium: Etching with chine-collé and watercolor
Dimensions: 10 1/2 x 13 inches (image), 13 x 16 1/4 inches (sheet)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: American, 1968
Date finished: 2021
Edition: of 10 e.v.

Recommended by Catherine (Collections Specialist):

Michèle Landsaat's quietly whimsical etchings never fail to make me smile or tug at my heartstrings. I tend to be most drawn toward her more personal or poignant work, but 'Squirrel with a Pineapple' is an adorable piece that I enjoy just as much. A funny twist on a traditional still life, it sparks my imagination and inspires many questions in my mind, such as - How did the squirrel get indoors? What was the reaction of the person who encountered it? I love the vibrancy of the red strawberry and the look on the squirrel's face - caught in the act, but unbothered. As we enter deeper into the cool autumn months, surrounded by busy squirrels collecting food and building their nests, this piece gives me a new appreciation for these resourceful little creatures.

Medium: Etching, collagraph, relief, chine-collé
Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Japanese, 1967
Date finished: 1998
Edition: of 30

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):

"Collagraph is a medium that became popular in the ‘60s after synthetic adhesives and plastics became more readily available. Artists from all over the world were invited to visit the studio of Glen Alps in Seattle, WA to try out the process of gluing substrates, scribing marks into the dried substrates, and printing the results as intaglio plates. This relatively new medium has continued its popularity  in the studios of contemporary artists, like Akiko Taniguchi. In ‘Atom’, Taniguchi is using texture and layering on her collagraph to pull the viewer into her 10x8 inch world of abstraction. In it, viewers get to explore the word ‘atom’ within complimentary red and green hues and explosive almond shapes. Every square inch of the print is delightfully filled with new and interesting textures that only collagraph can offer."

Medium: Color etching with chîne - collé and hand coloring
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (Image) 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches (Sheet)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Korean, 1983
Date finished: 2020
Edition: of 30

Recommended by Suzannah (Marketing and Communications Manager):

"Seoul (Sohee) Kim writes about her art as a playful engagement with alienating and ironic realities though imaginary space. Much of her work faces scenes such as packed train cars and claustrophobic workspaces, where bored and tired figures coexist with magical elements from her imagination. While humorous, much of her work conveys a sense of melancholy and anxiety, using a pastel color pallet, figures depicted in uncomfortable positions, and almost hallucinatory symbolism. “A Box for Rest Time” is as chaotic, muted, and claustrophobic as her other work, but it fills me with more peace and comfort than any other emotion. A figure sleeps in a box, filled to the brim with a messy bed, and next to them sleeps an oversized cat. I too want to hide away from the world and find sanctuary in a little box and a big bed with a big sleepy cat. There one finds safety, dreamless sleep, and rest beyond imagination."

Medium: Etching, aquatint
Dimensions: 3 x 2 inches (image)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: American, 1958
Date finished: 1997
Edition: 15/40

Recommended by Paige (Collections Manager):

" I find 'Elston Ave.' so interesting because it's a compression of a place into one image. To describe the experience of an entire city street is impossible, but here we see a version of Elston Avenue through the artist's eyes. His priorities, emphasis, symbols, and layers are borderline nonsensical, but full of texture and oddities that speak to his personal interpretation. I would love to take a walk down the avenue of Fitzpatrick's drawings."

#17467

Medium: Resist-ground etching, engraving
Dimensions: 25 x 40 inches
Signature: Signed
Artist details: American, 1930
Date finished: 2001
Edition: of 140

Recommended by Suzannah (Marketing and Communications Manager):

“Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.” - The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot

"Peter Milton’s prints share many qualities with the poetry of T.S. Eliot: the grand scale, ghostly vignettes, shifting perspectives, and liminal worlds, as well as a penchant for subtle references to cats in their art. ‘Visions and Revisions’, the title of which is taken from a line in “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock”, portrays a party that appears to be in full swing with many figures dancing and socializing. However something in the scene is fractured; the figures are spread far apart, some fading into nothingness, and many staring directly out of the paper at you, the viewer. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells a story from the perspective of a shy and anxious man who is contemplating attending a party and all the dooms and horrors that will befall him there. I imagine that the viewer is Prufrock, all at once subjected to“the eternal Footman” who holds your hat and coat, among the people “who come and go/talking of Michelangelo,” all while being observed by the woman who is misunderstood and misunderstands you, saying “that is not what I meant at all.” Both the poem and this print convey a powerful sense of disorientation in the midst of frivolity. This print is a haunting and faithful translation of a touchstone modernist poem from verse into visual art."

Medium: Etching
Dimensions: 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches (image)
Artist details: American, 1950
Date finished: 2007
Edition: of 30

Recommended by Paige (Collections Manager):

"Mary Farrell's etchings have an amazing precision and texture that make her imagery so visceral. In Identity, Farrell uses harsh contrast to cover the figure's shoulders and neck in highlights but shroud their face in shadows. I find so much mystery in the figure - the lack of context encourages anonymity but the face seems so specific, the pose is generic but hostile or at least uninviting, a cold but honest portrait. The title further mystifies me as I wonder how well I know this person from Farrell's image, or what really makes up an identity."

Medium: Etching and aquatint
Dimensions: 15 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (image)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Japanese, 1957
Edition: of 35
Condition: Some creases at lower left away from image.

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):
"Starfish are symbolic of divine and endless love. These celestial beings sweep the background of Asahi’s highly technical etching. The little blue-eyed starfish serve as helpful and loving guides as the central female figure pours out the ocean from a shell as she sits on the back of a flying dragon. There is an energy to the piece, despite the artist including only tiny pops of color in the eyes and small details of each creature. Instead, linework and shape build the composition’s movement and playfulness. Each line etched into the plate is carefully scratched to give swirling loops to the water, striking contrast to the dragon scales, and delicate curves on the woman’s body. A visual boost of warm and energetic feelings."

Medium: Etching, aquatint
Dimensions: 10 5/8 x 20 3/8 inches (image) 14 x 25 1/4 inches (sheet)
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Japanese, 1986
Date finished: 2015
Edition: of 15

Recommended by Sam (Owner & Director):
"Contemporary Japanese artist Azumi Takeda's etching Full, Full, Full is part of a wonderful series showing groups of people waiting, engrossed in various activities, or, as in this case, the artist focuses on the detritus left behind that references what they had been doing. There is order with the placement of the disparate objects, that speaks about each of the individuals that is no longer in the room. Takeda's use of the etching and aquatint process, is perfect for the detail required."

Series: Miserere
Medium: Mixed etching
Dimensions: 22 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches
Signature: None were signed. Watermark, Ambroise Vollard
Artist details: French, 1871 - 1958
Edition: 208/425 (+ 25 HC)
Printer: Jacquemin, 1922 - 1927
Publisher: Société d'Édition l'Étoile Filante, Paris 1948

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):
"Georges Rouault was commissioned to make this piece as a part of the Miserere (Misery) Series in 1916 (during WWI). During times of collective or individual trauma, people have always turned to artists to give themselves moments of peace, escape, or distraction. Visual arts, books, netflix, memes, and music are all things we are using today to deal with the pandemic and our own individual struggles. This etching reminds its viewers of the importance of artists and their creativity. Rouault’s work, ‘il serait si doux d’aimer’ or ‘to love would be so sweet’ gives just as much sweetness and comfort today as it did when it was published in 1948. Humans need connection and love. Even in gray, Rouault’s blend of fauvism and expressionism in this image of parent and child puts a small, but strong light on this pocket of love amongst all the misery that surrounds it."

#50582

Medium: Etching
Dimensions: 5 x 4 7/8 inches
Signature: Signed
Artist details: Russian, 1959
Date finished: 2010
Edition: of 60

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):
"This tiny etching is expertly crafted by Eastern European artist, Vladimir Zuev, to illustrate the story of Leda and the swan (aka, Zeus pretending to be a swan). Zeus seduces or rapes Leda, depending on the storyteller. Zeus fills the background, but subtly, despite his violent action. Instead, Zuev centers the story on Leda and does not overly sexualize her like most popular depictions, including not giving her hair. There are clues to her gender, but she is closed off to the viewer with her crossed legs and bent arms - not available for visual consumption. Instead, Leda is looking directly at the viewer - forcing us to look at her humanity.  

This image serves as a reminder that violence towards women is still prevalent, but not just in overt actions. It exists in the books we read, the media we consume, the words we use, the stories we retell, the art we purchase. This small image packs a very large punch and reminds us to critically analyze our own behaviors and constructs of thinking around women and violence."