Accession Number
1994/2.36

Title
Untitled

Artist(s)
Eric Fischl

Object Creation Date
1992

Medium & Support
aquatint on heavy, moderately textured cream wove paper, edition 11/15

Dimensions
31 in x 42 1/4 in (78.74 cm x 107.32 cm);35 1/2 in x 46 3/4 in x 2 in (90.17 cm x 118.75 cm x 5.08 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Sarah and Otto Graf

Label copy
This monochromatic image of a dog walking from a body of water toward the viewer has a strong sense of presence. Accompanied only by its shadow, the animal is virtually isolated on the shore. While not a narrative work, the image provokes questions: where is its owner? why is the dog walking toward us? In raising such questions, the print is related to Fischl’s famous, enigmatic narrative work of 1983, The Year of the Drowned Dog, in which people are occupied in various ways attending— or not attending—to the finding of the corpse of a dog on a shore.
Fischl uses the aquatint medium to create an almost palpable sense of light, atmosphere, and reflection. Aquatint is an etching technique that results in areas and gradations of tone resembling a watercolor drawing. In this technique a powdered resin is dusted on a copper or zinc plate, which is heated so that the powder fuses to the plate. When the plate is put into an acid bath, the dust particles protect the tiny areas beneath them, while the surrounding areas are "bitten" into the plate’s surface. When the plate is inked and wiped, ink remains in the bitten areas, and a fine, granular texture is produced when the plate is printed. Differing tones are produced by stopping out, or protecting with a layer of varnish, some portions of the plate and biting other parts further.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
modern and contemporary art