Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Eleven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-terry-frost-1126" aria-label="More by Sir Terry Frost" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Terry Frost</a>
Lament Ignacio Sanches Mejias
Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of David and Renée McKee 2022
abstraction
animals: features
animals: mammals
astronomy
blood
body
bull
bullfighting
colour
figure
from recognisable sources
horn
irregular forms
landscape
leisure and pastimes
lifestyle and culture
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
Lorca, Federico Garcia, ‘Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter’
non-representational
people
poetry
society
sport
sun
<p>Frost was a major figure in the second generation of St Ives artists. Although he is primarily known as an abstract painter, printmaking was a major part of his artistic output throughout his career. The prints in the series <i>Eleven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca</i> were produced to accompany a suite of poems by Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) printed in the original Spanish and in English translation. Work on Frost’s colour intaglio prints in this series was overseen first by painter and graphic designer Gordon House and then by printmaker Hugh Stoneman. The poems and prints were published by Austin/Desmond Contemporary Books, London in 1989 in a solander box designed by the artist. In the box each print rests inside a paper folder on which the respective poem is printed. In addition Frost decorated the exterior of the box and designed a title page for the portfolio. The suite was produced in an edition of seventy-five plus fifteen artist’s copies; Tate’s copy is the fourth of ten artist’s proofs.</p>
paper print etching
Lament for Ignacio Sanches Mejias
image: 557 × 378 mm
Presented by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of David and Renée McKee 2022
<p>Frost was a major figure in the second generation of St Ives artists. Although he is primarily known as 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/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a> painter, <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>printmaking</span></a> was a major part of his artistic output throughout his career. 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/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> in the series <i>Eleven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca</i> were produced to accompany a suite of poems by Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) printed in the original Spanish and in English translation. Work on Frost’s colour <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/intaglio" title="Glossary definition for 'Intaglio'"><span>intaglio</span></a> prints in this series was overseen first by painter and graphic designer Gordon House and then by printmaker Hugh Stoneman. The poems and prints were published by Austin/Desmond Contemporary Books, London in 1989 in a solander box designed by the artist. In the box each print rests inside 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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> folder on which the respective poem is printed. In addition Frost decorated the exterior of the box and designed a title page for 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/p/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a>. The suite was produced 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 seventy-five plus fifteen artist’s copies; Tate’s copy is the fourth of ten artist’s proofs.
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<br/>Widely regarded as one of Spain’s greatest writers, Lorca was killed by pro-Franco forces in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Along with his literary achievements his early death sealed his posthumous reputation as a political martyr. Frost began reading Lorca’s poetry in depth in the 1970s and was inspired by the poet’s visual imagery, particularly his emotive descriptions of colour. The artist’s first print made in response to a Lorca poem was a 1974 <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/screenprint" title="Glossary definition for 'Screenprint'"><span>screenprint</span></a> entitled <i>Variations</i>. In the late 1980s Frost obtained copyright to English translations of several of Lorca’s poems and began work on the images in this portfolio. Recalling this period of his life, Frost proclaimed his admiration for the poet, saying, ‘Lorca is so simple, and so direct, and so full of colour and ideas. I was so much in love with the poetry at that time’ (quoted in <i>Terry Frost: Six Decades</i>, p.69).
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<br/><i>Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias</i> is based on a four-part elegy to a young bullfighter and friend of Lorca’s who was fatally gored in the Manzanares arena in Madrid on 11 August 1934. In Frost’s print, the artist’s characteristic <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstracted</span></a> forms of solid colour suggest an illustration of the poem’s subject. A large black semi-circular wedge suggestive of a bull’s horn intrudes into the image from the left side. At its point is a splattering of bright red denoting the spilled blood of the matador. Above and to the right is a bright yellow circle, a simplified image of the blazing sun. An off-white arc is <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/embossed" title="Glossary definition for 'Embossed'"><span>embossed</span></a> below the circle, shadowing or cradling the yellow <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a>. The slightly glossy texture of the arc is dampened where it overlaid with smudges of red. Linda Saunders has commented on how the simplicity of 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> echoes the starkness of the poem. She has written, ‘Frost takes the primary force of his image from the bold colour of three of Lorca’s lines: “Oh, white wall of Spain! / Oh, black bull of sorrow! / Oh, hard blood of Ignacio!”’ (Saunders, ‘Frost and the Duende’, <i>Terry Frost</i>, p.222).
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>David Lewis, David Archer, Ronnie Duncan, Adrian Heath and Linda Saunders, <i>Terry Frost</i>, Aldershot, Hants, 2000, reproduced p.218 in colour.
<br/>Mel Gooding and Isabel Carlisle, <i>Terry Frost: Six Decades</i>, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2000.
<br/>Chris Stephens,<i> St Ives Artists: Terry Frost</i>, London, 2000, reproduced no.54 in colour.
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<br/>Rachel Taylor
<br/>July 2004</p>

Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction animals: features animals: mammals astronomy blood body bull bullfighting colour figure from recognisable sources horn irregular forms landscape leisure and pastimes lifestyle and culture literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) Lorca, Federico Garcia, ‘Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter’ non-representational people poetry society sport sun