Show Pink, Robert Dale Anderson

The writhing forms in Robert Dale Anderson’s Show Pink appear both cartoonish and repulsive. One can almost make out eyes, hair, and other body parts among the fray, but any conclusive identification is difficult. Anderson discusses the viewing experience of this dense imagery:

“What is realized through silent contemplation is content that polite society does its best to hide - decay, disease, death, dementia, and chaos: the dark side. Siding within the traditions of the erotic, carnivalesque, fantastic, surrealistic, and psychedelic we find malignant growth and movement, a rotting world turned upside down in disorder, twisted grotesque bodies, beautiful monsters and decaying ruins.”

Etching is an intaglio printmaking technique. Intaglio includes all techniques (most commonly engraving and etching) where incisions or indentations are made in a plate to hold the ink and create lines. In etching, a metal plate is prepared with an acid-resistant ground. In soft ground etching, the ground includes tallow, which makes the ground soft and sticky. The artist places paper over the plate and draws with a pencil, which causes the ground to stick to the paper and leave lines when the artist removes the paper. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath that creates deeper “bitten” lines. Once the ground is removed, the artist applies ink to the plate that rests in the sunken lines but is wiped from the plate surface. The artist then places the plate against dampened paper and passes it through a printing press, which exerts the pressure necessary to transfer the ink in the sunken lines to the paper.