'Red and Black (Flying City Series)', Denis Bowen

Artwork details

Artist

Denis Bowen (1921‑2006)

Title

Red and Black (Flying City Series)

Date 1956

MediumScreenprint on paper

Dimensionsimage: 502 x 760 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased 2002

Reference

P78595

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Summary

Red and Black is an early example of serigraphy, also known as silkscreen printing. The appeal of this new technique for artists who attached great importance to spontaneity lay in the speed and freedom with which images could be made. With more traditional techniques spontaneity tended to be compromised by the laborious methods involved. In addition Peter Davies notes that ‘The fine weave of the screen allowed intriguing half-tone effects that an abstract artist enjoyed for purely textural rather than descriptive ends’ (Davies, p.15). His practice, which was steeped in quasi-Zen philosophy, involved the use of meditation to ‘empty his mind’ of thoughts… (read more)