Stephen Prina
(American)
Monochrome Painting plus Errata
Date1988-1993
Medium14 Intaglio and lithograph prints on paper, 2 lithograph prints on paper
DimensionsUnframed (each): 30 1/4 x 22 1/2 in. (76.8 x 57.2 cm)
Credit LineCollection CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Gift Private Collection, New York
Copyright© Stephen Prina
Object numberCCS2020.5
ClassificationsMultiple
Not on view
DescriptionStephen Prina’s “Monochrome Painting Plus Errata 1989 – 93” is a portfolio of two lithographs and 14 etchings with lithograph signed and numbered by the artist on the verso in an edition of 20 with six artist's proofs. Each print is 22 x 46 and was printed on Rives BFK paper by Anthony Zapeda in Los Angeles. This is Prina's first print project building upon his 1989 Monochrome Painting exhibition at the Renaissance Society. In “Monochrome Painting”, which he considers one work with 14 panels, he reproduced monochrome paintings by 14 other artists, Malevich to Palermo, each to exact size, but sprayed a standard 1985 VW green at a body shop. Prina also designed a poster, invitation, graphics, and catalogue as part of the exhibition. The print portfolio carries the logic further, for it contains not only a frontispiece and prints reproducing the images but a text page with captions, colophon, and errata. "The errata list gave the print project what it needed to spin" says Prina. The errata are of three kinds. One was deliberate, an incorrect reference he made to a book on Yves Klein in the 1989 catalogue. A second was unavoidable. A lost Rodchenko never publicly exhibited was thought to be squarish. Prina made an educated guess that it was 30 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches. The Rodchenko, found in a private Russian collection, proved to be 24 7/16 x 20 11/16 inches. Third was a series of fax errors, which Prina finds a new fact of life. The paintings are reproduced on a smaller scale in the portfolio, placed offside like early Frank Stella prints, and printed VW green; the texts are in black; the case is covered with a variegated green silk, its darkest green also VW.
Barbara Kruger
