Aquatint and etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Seven Aquatints
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mangold-1568" aria-label="More by Robert Mangold" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Robert Mangold</a>
Purchased 1974
abstraction
colour
geometric
monochromatic
non-representational
paper print aquatint etching
[title not known]
image: 403 × 400 mm
Purchased 1974
<em>This catalogue entry discusses a group of works.</em>
<p>
<strong>Robert Mangold</strong> born 1937
</p><p>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07083" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07083</span></a>-9 <strong>Seven Aquatints</strong> 1973
</p><p>
Each inscribed '11/50' b.l. and 'R. Mangold 1973' b.r.<br/>
Aquatints with soft-ground etching, each approx. 15 7/8 x 15 3/4 (40.4 x 39.9) on paper approx. 27 x 24 (68.5 x 56.4)<br/>
Purchased from the Lisson Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1974<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> Published by Parasol Press, New York; through John Weber Gallery, New York; with Lisson Gallery, London<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> <em>Series</em>, Tate Gallery, December 1977-January 1978 (13)<br/>
<em>Lit: Print Collector's Newsletter</em>, V, No.2, 1974, p.41
</p><p>
The colours of the individual <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> (in their correct order) and their exact sizes are as follows:
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<span>P07083</span> Blue<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 3/4 (40.4 x 39.9) on <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> 27 1/8 x 22 1/4 (68.8 x 56.4)<br/>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07084" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07084</span></a> Green<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 3/4 (40.4 x 40) on paper 27 x 22 1/4 (68.5 x 56.4)<br/>
<strong>P07085</strong> Orange-ochre<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 3/4 (40.4 x 39.9) on paper 26 7/8 x 22 1/4 (68.3 x 56.5)<br/>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07086" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07086</span></a> Grey<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 3/4 (40.4 x 39.9) on paper 27 1/8 x 22 1/8 (68.8 x 56.3)<br/>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07087" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07087</span></a> Red<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 5/8 (40.4 x 39.8) on paper 27 1/8 x 22 1/4 (68.8 x 56.4)<br/>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07088" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07088</span></a> Yellow-ochre<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 5/8 (40.4 x 39.8) on paper 27 x 22 1/8 (68.5 x 56.2)<br/>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mangold-title-not-known-p07089" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07089</span></a> Blue-green<br/>
15 7/8 x 15 5/8 (40.3 x 39.8) on paper 27 x 22 1/8 (68.6 x 56.2)
</p><p>
Mangold made a series of eight circle <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> in 1973 in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>graphite</span></a> pencil and coloured pencil on rectangular sheets of paper, each with a circle drawn in colour enclosing a quadrilateral drawn in black which is nearly but not quite a square. The set of eight is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue <em>Robert Mangold</em>, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, March-May 1974, n.p. A close correspondence is evident between the relationship of the near-square to the circle in seven of these drawings and in the set of seven aquatints.
</p><p>
The artist has explained (letter of 4 April 1978): 'The set of drawings was started on before the prints and I chose to explore as many variations of the theme of the distorted square within a circle as was possible without being repetitive etc. At this same time I chose to execute several of these ideas into circular <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a>.
</p><p>
'When I again decided to rework the series idea, as in the drawings, I chose to omit one idea the # 3 in left to right sequence of the drawings as I decided it was too closely related to other drawings in the set. I also decided to add the additional element of the square of color ... So in effect you had in the prints a distorted square within a circle, within a square ...
</p><p>
'In the line drawings (8) the circle in each was drawn with a colored pencil, each a different color. When I did the prints I no longer recalled what the line colors were and simply made a new color sequence which may or may not correspond to the drawing color sequence, no attempt was made to duplicate it, and I have never checked to find if there were in fact any correspondences. The distorted squares in the drawings were done with a graphite pencil the same in each.'
</p><p>
The set of seven aquatints with soft-ground <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a> was published by the Parasol Press, New York, and issued in a <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/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of 50. Each print was printed on Rives B F K paper by Kathan Brown at the Crown Point Press in Oakland, California.
</p><p>
<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.476-7, reproduced p.476
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction colour geometric monochromatic non-representational