Siamese Leaves
Date2017
MediumRelief print, oil pigment on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 29 x 18 in. (73.7 x 45.7 cm)
Credit LineCenter for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Object numberCCS2018.6.4
ClassificationsMultiple
Not on view
DescriptionWorking with artists who were associated with Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co., CCS Bard and Art+Culture Projects have partnered to present specially commissioned limited editions to support The Conditions of Being Art: Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co. (1983-2004). Philip Taaffe's Siamese Leaves does little to hide the way in which the print was created. Spots of dried ink limit the contact of the paper with the matrix producing areas where ink was not picked up, and where one would expect to find negative space, we see generous markings from the print block itself. As much as Siamese Leaves might seem to be about the temporary and tangential joining of two leaves, we're left to wonder if what we're really seeing is evidence of the temporary pressured joining of the woodblock and the paper whereby the relief print has been produced.
