Pegasus
12" x 14"
Edition of 50
1945 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"This composition tried to express symbolically, the condition of the creative spirit at the end of World War II. Pegasus the winged worse, the dream symbol of man's creative imagination, tries to get out from under the remains of barbed wires and nets among the concrete tank traps. He makes a feeble attempt to rise on his forelegs. In the distance there are still explosions. The dark mesh, which arches over the horse, has a suggestion of a pelvic form which would indicate that awakening is more like birth. I had a feeling at that time (1945) that the great question of our era is whether this birth, or rebirth, of Pegasus will be a living lasting success or not. It is not enough to have rockets and bombers flying high in the air while man's creative soul with its dreams is permanently grounded.
The technique of this copper plate is a combination of straight burin engraving and soft ground etching. The method applied I learned at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 on Christmas of 1945 in New York."
Leo Katz
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Space Organization
8"x10"
Edition of 50
1945 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"Space organization is exactly what the title means, an attempt to organize space. Starting with a background of classical perspective construction, there are forms partly solid and partly transparent moving through space. This was an experiment on soft ground technique and abstract composition.
This method of experimenting was a group project at Atelier 17 in 1945 in New York City."
Leo Katz
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Textures
10" x 6"
Edition of 50
1945 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"Textures is an attempt to compose a symphony of lines with different strength and movement in relation ti a great variety of textural areas. As the title says, my main interest was concentrating on experimenting with and ysing the new soft ground techniques for textural effects. There was no particular symbolic meaning.
The technique of this copper plate is a combination of engraving and soft ground etching. The method applied I learned at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17. It was completed in 1945 in New York."
Leo Katz
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Patzcuaro Nocturne
14" x 18"
Edition of 85
1943 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"I spent the major part of whole summer in Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan in Mexico. It used to be an enchanting place before the modern automobile road attracted tourists in large numbers. Every morning when the sun shone, I made landscape sketches. During the afternoon there was almost invariable cloud bursts at which time I stayed indoors to make the sketches of the Tarascan Indians. After the rain in the evening, people would put out their little pots and pans to sell coffee, corn, and enchiladas. I saw an older woman of an indian type when a young girl turned to the older woman with a cup in her hand. The simple movement of her rebozo in combination with the strange light effects and the simpe forms of the pots created almost a biblical atmosphere which I tried to capture in a sketch, and later in this lithograph. These are vendors of coffee and roast corn at nightfall on the Patzcuaro Muchoacan."
Leo Katz
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Swan
8" x 10"
Edition Count Unknown
1945 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
Swan Engraving is part of a teaching and experimental engraving that illustrates the soft ground etching techniques of white and black features. The swan often depicted as Cygnus, and other animal like images are used in this print and many of Leo's paintings and murals. The print was completed at Atelier 17 in 1945.
The Leo Katz Foundation
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