Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/barry-flanagan-1100" aria-label="More by Barry Flanagan" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Barry Flanagan</a>
Eve
Presented by Sue Flanagan, the artist's former wife 1985
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
animals: reptiles
bat
Bible: Old Testament
elephant
Eve
female
fine art and design, named works
food and drink
fruit - non-specific
natural phenomena
nudes
objects
people
religion and belief
Rembrandt, etching, ‘Adam and Eve’
shadow
snake
standing
tree
woman
paper print etching
Eve
image: 250 × 201 mm
Presented by Sue Flanagan, the artist's former wife 1985
<p><i>This catalogue entry discusses a group of works; details of the individual work are given at the end of the introductory text.</i><span>
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<p><b>Barry Flanagan</b><span>
born 1941 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/flanagan-colours-up-induction-p02723" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02723</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/flanagan-yacht-ii-p02834" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02834</span></a> Group of 112 etchings and linocuts, various sizes. Presented by the artist’s former wife Sue Flanagan 1985 </span>
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<p><span>This group 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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> represents nearly the entire printed output of the artist up to 1983 and is one of the largest public collections of his prints. The titles were all given by the artist. Those prints bearing the stamped monogram ‘f’ were stamped by the Tate Gallery at the artist’s request. </span>
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<p><span>The artist has said that print-making represents for him a ‘traditional pursuit’. Flanagan began to make prints in 1970. His 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>) often have a very personal content and can be seen as akin to private memoranda. Sometimes used as gifts for friends, they record aspects of the artist’s personal life. He first published prints with the Rowan Gallery in 1972, a year in which his print-making was prolific. Thereafter he published series of prints with Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1976 and Waddington Graphics in 1983. </span>
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<p><span>In 1981 Flanagan exhibited a comprehensive range of his prints and drawings at the Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno. The exhibition travelled to Mold, Cardiff, Swansea, Southampton and London and then, in 1983, toured in Italy, France and Holland. In the early 1980s Colin Dyer, working with the artist in his studio, completed archival sets of prints using cream Vélin d’Arches <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>. Those <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>etchings</span></a> in the Sue Flanagan donation printed on white paper are generally those which the artist printed at Petersburg Press, at Burleighfield Press (with David Harding) or in his own studio in the early and mid 1970s. </span>
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<p><span>Many of the prints have a small dark rectangle at one of their edges which results from the etching process. David Brown explains: </span>
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<blockquote><span>In the preparation of etching plates, they are ‘smoked’ in a flame to produce a fine, even covering of wax, the plate being held by a pair of tongs and therefore unaffected by the ‘smoking’ process would be waxed later, but with these prints, Flanagan chose to eliminate this final stage leaving a small area etched by acid and absorbing the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> (</span><i>Barry Flanagan: Etchings 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/l/linocut" title="Glossary definition for 'Linocut'"><span>Linocuts</span></a></i><span>, exh. cat., Waddington Graphics 1984, [p.3]). </span>
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<br/><span>So characteristic of Flanagan’s etchings is this black mark, it can almost be seen as a second ‘signature’. </span>
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<p><span>These entries are based on conversations with Sue Flanagan and Colin Dyer and have been approved by the artist. </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/flanagan-eve-p02811" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02811</span></a> </span><b>Eve</b><span>
1977, reprinted </span><i>c</i><span>.1983 </span>
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<p><span>Etching 250 x 201 (9 7/8 x 7 7/8) on cream Vélin d'Arches paper 334 x 383 (13 1/8 x 15 1/8); plate-mark 250 x 201 (9 7/8 x 7 7/8); printed by Colin Dyer </span><i>c</i><span>.1983; not editioned</span>
<br/><span>Printed inscription ‘O'Rembrandt 1638' in reverse bottom centre; stamped with the artist's monogram ‘f' below image b.r. </span>
<br/><i>Lit: </i><span>[Elizabeth Knowles (ed.)], </span><i>Barry Flanagan Prints 1970-1983</i><span>, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, 1986, p.31; Lewis Biggs, </span><i>Barry Flanagan - A Visual Invitation, Sculpture 1967-1987</i><span>, exh. cat., Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 1987, p.33 repr. </span><i>Also repr: Barry Flanagan Sculptures</i><span>, exh. cat., Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1983, p.83 </span>
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<p><span>This is the second version of the Rembrandt etching ‘Adam and Eve' made by Flanagan (see entries on </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02727" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02727');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02727</span></a><span>
and also </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02812" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02812');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02812</span></a><span>). The fact that the artist returned to this particular source after an interval of seven years suggests, Lewis Biggs writes, that the ‘image must have had a considerable power for him'. ‘Apart from Rembrandt's pre-eminence as an etcher', Biggs continues, ‘the choice of this print as model might be taken as evidence of Flanagan's concern with the questions of beginnings and ends, life and death, origins and immortality. Adam is absent from this print but a male presence is suggested by the elephant and coiled serpent'. </span>
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<p><span>Elizabeth Knowles writes that the etching was printed 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> to produce the particular grey and warm density the artist required. </span>
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<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84</i><span>, Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp.333 and 352</span>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-17T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: mammals animals: reptiles bat Bible: Old Testament elephant Eve female fine art and design, named works food and drink fruit - non-specific natural phenomena nudes objects people religion and belief Rembrandt, etching, ‘Adam and Eve’ shadow snake standing tree woman