Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Landfall Set
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-cottingham-947" aria-label="More by Robert Cottingham" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Robert Cottingham</a>
Black Girl
Purchased 1982
architecture
cinema
lifestyle and culture
places of entertainment
signage
society
tower block
townscapes / man-made features
urban environment
paper print lithograph
Black Girl
image: 266 × 266 mm
Purchased 1982
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cottingham-black-girl-p07642" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07642</span></a> <b>Black Girl</b> 1980
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<br/>Lithograph 10 1/2 × 10 1/2 (266 × 266) on paper 17 1/2 × 17 1/2 (444 ×444), printed and published by Landfall Press, Inc., Chicago
<br/>Inscribed ‘Cottingham 1980’b.r. and ‘30/50’; impressed with the publisher's stamp
<br/>Purchased at Sotheby's, Los Angeles (Grant-in-Aid) 1982
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<br/>These three <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> [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cottingham-carls-p07641" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07641</span></a>, <span>P07642</span>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cottingham-frankfurters-p07643" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07643</span></a>] belong to the Landfall Set, a group of 11 <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> 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/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> made at Landfall Press, Inc. between 1973 and 1978 (repr. The Complete Guide to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/h/hyper-realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Hyper-Realism'"><span>Photo-Realist</span></a> Printmaking, exhibition catalogue, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, 1978). Cottingham's subjects are the advertising and neon signs on American shop fronts, an interest which arose out of his previous experience as an advertising executive. Although the images derive from <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photography</span></a>, both in their genesis and in the printmaking technique (photolithography in the case of ‘Black Girl’ and ‘Frankfurters’), the works demonstrate that Cottingham's aim is not merely to reproduce 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/r/readymade" title="Glossary definition for 'Readymade'"><span>ready-made</span></a> photograph in order to achieve what would be known in commercial terms as a ‘retouched image’. The artist has stated: ‘I don't care about being realistic. In other words, I don't put in little rust spots or bolts that show. I'm not looking for that kind 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/r/realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Realism'"><span>realism</span></a>. I'm just using the subjects as the stepping-off points to compose 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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>’ (quoted in Pop Prints, exhibition handlist, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1978). Cottingham's primary concerns are formal. In ‘Frankfurters’, for instance, Cottingham has cropped the image and in so doing emphasises the sharply converging verticals of the shop fascia. This ordering of forms is pursued with an inclination to their <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> values, but the resulting dynamics also relate to the fast pace suggested by the urban context which Cottingham wishes to evoke. Although he is interested in typography and decorative lettering and prefers ‘Downtown’ street signs where there are numerous remnants from times when they were especially inventive and brash, this interest is not indulged simply for its own sake. Cottingham frequently modifies the appearance of a sign by cropping the image so that only a detail of the sign is included within the picture space. This enables him to invest the letters with a new, often incongruous, message or meaning, for example: ‘Orph’ 1972 (repr. Photo-Realist Printmaking, exhibition catalogue, n.p.) and ‘Wool Ants’ which figures in <span>P07641</span>. In other works, this manipulation is evidence of an inventive verbal wit, as in ‘Ode’ (repr. Edward Lucie-Smith, Super-Realism, Oxford, 1979, ill 26).
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<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
architecture cinema lifestyle and culture places of entertainment signage society tower block townscapes / man-made features urban environment