Screenprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Power and Beauty
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/colin-self-1922" aria-label="More by Colin Self" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Colin Self</a>
Power and Beauty 6
Purchased 1983
animals: birds
animals: features
beauty
emotions, concepts and ideas
feather
formal qualities
peacock
photographic
universal concepts
paper print screenprint
Power and Beauty No. 6
image: 707 × 985 mm
Purchased 1983
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/self-power-and-beauty-no-6-p07745" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07745</span></a> [from] <b>Power and Beauty No.6</b> 1968 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/self-power-and-beauty-no-7-p07744" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07744</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/self-power-and-beauty-no-3-p07746" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07746</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/self-prelude-p77696" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P77696</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/self-power-and-beauty-no-9-p77702" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P77702</span></a>; incomplete]
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<br/>Screenprint 27 7/8 × 38 3/4 (707 × 985), printed by Lynn Haywood at Editions Alecto and published by them
<br/>Inscribed ‘Colin Self’ b.l. and ‘Power &amp; Beauty No.6’ and ‘68/75’
<br/>Purchased from the artist (Grant-in-Aid) 1983
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<br/>There were six editioned ‘Power and Beauty’ <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a>, <span>P07744</span> being a colour variant of the editioned version of the image of a peacock (<span>P07745</span>). The method for the peacock was ‘to screen a sheet of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> black. Screen white through the screen with most holes in. [Then] The blue one of the tri-chromatic separation. Then print the three screens (colours) (blue-red-yellow) onto this. This gave it the “darkness”, the “edge” ... mystic. Heavy. Sheen. But depth. Took a long time. On the way I really liked the ghostly white on black one’ - Self therefore had two copies printed in this form.
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<br/>The car image, of the first ever customised car by Joe Baillon, 1948, came from a 1964 magazine and the whale from an animal magazine belonging to Margaret's grandmother. In his notes on the Alecto Gallery exhibition of prints and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>, October–November 1968, Self wrote:
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<br/>The Power and Beauty prints are about images that have influenced my themes, drawings or <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>, and about images which have haunted me...
<br/></p>
<p>The photo images I have presented in Power and Beauty have seemed complete, impregnable. All I have wanted to do with them so far is to foster them (a valid act) and to try to recreate those images and what they have made me feel. By using a standard size for all the prints (and other devices) the subjects are transformed, can be seen for appearance, aggressive or passive looks. This upsets the objects real physical size to a certain extent so that e.g. the cockerel looks deadlier and more massive than the charging elephant and Joe Baillon's classic customised car becomes elephantine, sinister and oppressive, more menacing than nuclear warheads.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
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<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: birds animals: features beauty emotions, concepts and ideas feather formal qualities peacock photographic universal concepts