Ahab's Leg, from: The Waves

Details

FRANK STELLA (B. 1936)
Ahab's Leg, from: The Waves
screenprint, lithograph and linocut in colours, with marbling and collage, and extensive hand colouring in acrylic and watercolour, 1989, on T. H. Saunders and Somerset wove paper, signed and dated in pencil, inscribed C.T.P. 8, a unique colour trial proof, aside from the edition of sixty published by Waddington Graphics, London, the full sheet, in very good condition, framed
Image & Sheet 1924 x 1420 mm.

Literature

see Axsom 198

Special Notice

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James Baskerville

jbaskerville@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3385

Lot Essay

From 1985 to 1989, Frank Stella produced his series of thirteen large-scale prints The Waves, inspired by Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick. The series was a technical tour de force combining diverse printmaking methods such as screenprint, lithography, and linocut with hand cut paper collage and hand coloured elements. The series was published by Waddington Graphics in 1989.
After completing the edition of sixty, with ten artist's proofs and four printer's proofs, Stella decided to use the remaining compositional plates and collage elements to explore further hand-painted colour arrangements and printings. He went on to make approximately ten unique colour variants of each design, of which this impression and the following lot are two examples.

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