Dimensions: image: 300 x 203 mm
Copyright: © Peter Doig | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Peter Doig's print, "Figure in a Mountain Landscape," at the Tate, presents us with a darkly dressed figure dwarfed by an imposing landscape. Editor: I feel a bit unsettled, looking at it. The figure feels isolated, almost consumed by the moody, dreamlike setting. Curator: Doig often plays with memory and perception, so perhaps that feeling is intentional. The figure is positioned in the foreground, yet the heavy strokes and muted palette make it seem to merge with the environment. Editor: Right, it is about a mood more than an actual place. The dark figure, set against the pale yellow, reminds me of the sublime, that feeling of being both drawn to and overwhelmed by nature. Curator: Absolutely, and considering Doig's interest in cinema, one wonders if he intends this figure to represent a character within a larger narrative, one that asks us to consider what is hidden versus revealed. Editor: It stays with you, doesn’t it? A simple image, yet so resonant. Curator: Definitely, like a haunting melody, it resonates long after you have looked away.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/doig-figure-in-a-mountain-landscape-p11548
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Grasshopper is Doig’s third print portfolio, following Ten Etchings 1996 (Tate P11471-P11480) and Blizzard ’77 1997 (Tate P11554-P11561). It was produced in an edition of thirty-five. Tate’s copy is one of seven additional proof sets. Each print is individually signed and numbered ‘TC’ (Tate copy) by the artist. The portfolio is presented in a pale yellow, hinged solander box bearing the artist’s name in dark brown. The title and colophon pages were designed by Peter B. Willberg and printed in dark green. The contents were printed at Hope Sufferance Press, London on 350gsm Zerkall paper and published by Charles Booth-Clibborn under his imprint, The Paragon Press. Colour etching involves a layering process sympathetic to Doig’s painting process of building up colours and image in many stages. The prints in Grasshopper were created using between one and three plates and a range of etching techniques. Variety in texture and tone was created with aquatint (a process for creating an even tonal field), open bite (a method in which unprotected areas of the plate are exposed to acid to produce a very light tone), deep bite (a process which results in very dark tones), spit bite (a method involving painting or splashing acid onto the plate resulting in painterly effects) and sugarlift (a process which allows the artist to paint marks that print rather than having to outline them negatively). The individual prints were originally untitled, but were titled by the artist on publication of Contemporary British Art in Print: The Publications of Charles Booth-Clibborn and his Imprint The Paragon Press 1995-2000 in 2001.
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