Struthiomimus
16" x 30"
Edition of 45
1955 Atelier 17 Dry Burr Engraving in Colors
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"After many discussions dealing with the apocalyptic danger of the atom bomb I saw at the Natural History Museum of New York the petrified skeleton of Struthiomimus, a lizard dinosaur of the cretaceous period. Struthiomimus is shown here with his frantic efforts to escape with his movements caught in all their dramatic forces as if by stoboscopic camera.
I could not imagine myself ticking the copper with an etching needle so I needed a more dramatic process than conventional copper engraving techniques. I found myself one day in a dentist's chair and while a beautiful cavity was drilled skillfully into my tooth, I suddenly realized that I had found the right tool. I asked the dentist for a number of burns and after rigging up a contraption with a flexible shaft and electric motor to approximate a dentists drill, I drilled bone shaped cavities into the copper. I soon discovered that many other effects could be achieved with those dentists burrs on the surface of the plate. I experimented with different color combinations because the original neutral grays seemed a contradiction to the superdramatic movements of this "Cretaceous Death Dance"."
Leo Katz
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