TitlePoseidon's Friend
Artist
Federico Castellon
(Spanish/American, 1914 - 1971)
Date1963
MediumLithograph on cream BFK RIVES paper
DimensionsSheet size: 19 3/4 × 25 11/16 in.
Image size: 14 15/16 × 20 1/2 in.
Mat size: 24 × 30 in.
Edition5/27
SignedSigned in graphite at LR: "Federico Castellon".
MarkingsWatermark: BFK RIVES
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, March 2, 1964
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1982.2422
Label TextCastellon was born in Spain and moved with his family to Brooklyn in 1921. A painter, sculptor, printmaker, and teacher, he made his first lithograph about 1937. This print is from his group of major large lithographs of the 1960s that have mysterious qualities, in this case suggesting a dreamlike state or perhaps a nightmare. Castellon used both black and green-grey ink, subtly enhancing the dark setting and the sense of another reality. His prints of the 1930s were closer to traditional surrealism both in terms of iconography and clarity of form. This work and others of the same year evoke the work of the French symbolist Odion Redon (1840 - 1916).
