Cecil Collins, Untitled ?1939
© Tate
Summary
This complicated composition of geometric shapes is built up from engraved lines. By overlapping and crossing lines on the metal plate, Collins has created three dimensional shapes. Unusually the etching has been printed on to newspaper which has discoloured over time. The reason why Collins produced this image is unclear, but it may have been an experiment in print-making.
Collins pursued his vision of a lost paradise, destroyed by the mechanisation of the modern world, throughout his lifetime. Creating his own version of archetypal figures, such as the Fool and the Angel, Collins attempted to reveal to us our innermost selves. These figures, he believed, represented an innocence that had ceased to exist in the ‘Machine Age’ (Keeble, p.73)… (read more)
Collins pursued his vision of a lost paradise, destroyed by the mechanisation of the modern world, throughout his lifetime. Creating his own version of archetypal figures, such as the Fool and the Angel, Collins attempted to reveal to us our innermost selves. These figures, he believed, represented an innocence that had ceased to exist in the ‘Machine Age’ (Keeble, p.73)… (read more)
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