Rashid Johnson Prints and Multiples

An excellent impression of this soft-ground etching on Somerset Velvet wove paper. Signed and numbered 8/35 by Johnson on verso. Acquired directly from the publisher, Hauser & Wirth.

Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) explores elements of cultural identity through a wide range of media, with a focus on African American history. Many...

Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) explores elements of cultural identity through a wide range of media, with a focus on African American history. Many of Johnson's works are poignant meditations on race and class. Johnson is known for using both abstraction and autobiographic elements in his work juxtaposed with aspects of science African American history. The artist frequently introduces new techniques to his practice, whether at his own printmaking atelier, or through frequent collaborations. He also makes his own tools to score, scrape, engrave, and brand his artwork. Regardless of medium, Rashid Johnson's aesthetic is known for its repeated motifs: such as giant black forms, sometimes aggressive, sometimes gestural, that seem to devour their pictorial plain. In this work, the intensity in circular mark-making evokes deep complexities in this etching. This print is a paradigm of Johnson's oeuvre and his mastery of the nuances involved in the color black. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, his work can be found in museum collections around the world. In 2011, he was featured in the international pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is also one of the youngest artists to have works pass the $1 million dollar...