Autumn Composition, Tony Fitzpatrick; Big Cat Press

Artwork Overview

Tony Fitzpatrick; Big Cat Press, Autumn Composition
Tony Fitzpatrick; Big Cat Press, Autumn Composition
Tony Fitzpatrick
Autumn Composition
2002
Tony Fitzpatrick, artist
born 1958
Autumn Composition, 2002
Portfolio/Series title: The Autumn Etchings
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: color etching; aquatint
Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 325 x 275 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 12 3/4 x 10 13/16 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund
Accession number: 2003.0068.09
Not on display
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Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Conflicting Memories," Oct-2003, Steve Goddard When Tony Fitzpatrick etched his superbly crafted four-color etchings in the fall of 2001 he acknowledged that their evident infatuation with nature and botanical forms was a departure from his usual urban subject matter. Following the attack on the World Trade Center most artists found themselves unable to continue their previous trajectories. In retrospect, Fitzpatrick's etchings are not just a nod to nature, but a response to the catastrophe of 9-11. The prints are autumnal, about the end of a life cycle, and they include provocative themes such as "autumn tower" - at once a towering thunderhead and an echo of an enormous dust cloud.

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 178 Feb-2009, Meredith Moore I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick began his printmaking career as an ad-hoc prison tattoo artist, indelibly etching his designs with skin and ink. His recent works on paper are perhaps more conventional, but no less alive. The Autumn Etchings drip and ooze, prick and scrape. Displayed as group, the suite of 12 prints resembles an ‘overripe hothouse’, with distended seed pods nestled amongst twisting barbs of earthy green-and-orange weeds. Delicately letter-pressed haiku preface each etching; for a trio of ballistic sweetgum pods, Fitzpatrick writes, The Autumn planets Fall from trees; pulled by ancient, Eternal magnets. Begun in the fall of 2001, the etchings remind us of the end of things at a time when our vulnerability was thoroughly exposed. Yet, in the vitality of Fitzpatrick’s color and line, we glimpse rejuvenation. The Autumn Etchings suite, and other graphic work, can be seen in the Spencer Print Room any Friday between 10 and noon, or 1 and 4. With thanks to Meredith Moore for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.