TitleWashington Video: Down in the Think Tank
Artist
Warrington Colescott
(American, 1921 - 2018)
Date1982
MediumColor etching, soft-ground etching and aquatint on white Arches paper
DimensionsSheet size: 40 3/8 × 29 5/8 in.
Plate size: 34 1/2 × 24 in.
Image size: 34 1/2 × 24 in.
Edition5/50
SignedSigned lower right in graphite: "W[arrington] Colescott 1982".
MarkingsWatermark: ARCHES / FRANCE
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, May 6, 1992
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1992.8
Label TextWarrington Colescott is a political satirist in his paintings and prints in the tradition of eighteenth-century British cartoonists such as James Gillray, William Hogarth, and others. Colescott was born in New Orleans and raised in Oakland, California, attending the University of California, Berkeley for his B.A. and M.A. After serving in the military, Colescott continued his studies in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He returned to the U.S. in 1949 and began teaching intaglio printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, a position he held until 1986. Colescott refined the use of complex printmaking techniques including the unique practice of cutting intaglio plates in order to silhouette compositional elements."Washington Video: Down in the Think Tank" is from a series of prints begun in 1982 created after the artist purchased a satellite dish which gave him access to a large amount of political and news programming. Specifically, "Down in the Think Tank" is a critique of the Brookings Institute, which served as the intellectual arm of the successive Democratic and Republican administrations of the 1970s and 1980s. Instead of depicting the policy wonks and pundits as undertaking analytical research or establishing political agendas, Colescott shows them enjoying various leisurely pursuits such as tennis, chess, and swimming, among others. While the depiction of the narrative is humorous (and perhaps not inaccurate), like most of the artist's prints its ultimate message is one of somber realization.
