Small Book

Catalogue entry

Lorenzo Bonechi born 1955

P77027 Small Book 1983

Drypoint 637 x 485 (25 1/8 x 19 1/8) on Carini paper 760 x 567 (29 7/8 x 22 3/8); plate-mark 645 x 492 (25 3/8 x 19 3/8); printer's and publisher's stamp ‘CARINI TUSCANY'; printed and published by Carini, Florence in an edition of 16
Inscribed ‘Lorenzo Bonechi '83' below image b.r. and ‘1/16' below image b.l.
Purchased from Nigel Greenwood Inc. (Grant-in-Aid) 1984
Lit: Elizabeth Underhill, New Prints and Drawings, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, 1984, pp.1-2

This drypoint printed in turquoise ink depicts an inverted human figure above a small cluster of buildings on a hill. The pale images are surrounded by a densely cross-hatched background. Bonechi writes:

This picture represents a dream that I had some years ago and I remember the clear sensation of the beauty of the colour. The sky was turquoise and the architecture mother of pearl and I was gliding slowly across the landscape ... I chose turquoise because it was the colour which helped me construct the atmosphere I wished to represent.

The figure, like the one in P77026, is holding a small book, once more representing knowledge. The artist writes that ‘the book is always the idea of wisdom which is accompanied by an atmosphere of peace and harmony'.

Bonechi owns a small pastel drawing with the same title as P77027.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84, Tate Gallery, London 1988, p.316

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