TitleDuomo
Artist
John Ross
(1921 - 2017)
Date1959
MediumColor cardboard relief print on Japanese paper mounted to paperboard
DimensionsSheet size: 30 3/8 x 22 9/16 in.
Mat size: 36 × 28 in.
Edition16/16
SignedSigned in graphite at bottom right: "John Ross 59".
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number2006.20
Label TextJohn Ross stands as one of the most influential printmakers of his generation. Born and raised in New York City, Ross attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in the late 1930s. His education, however, was interrupted by his service in the Army Air Force during World War II. Ross was stationed in Italy during the War, initiating a life-long love affair with that country, to which he has returned nearly every year since. Following the War, the artist graduated from Cooper Union and proceeded to refine his printmaking techniques. Along with his artist wife, Clare Romano, Ross has published two seminal instructional artist manuals "The Complete Printmaker" and "The Complete Collagraph.""Duomo" is an important early work by Ross in subject and technique and is one of the earliest collagraph prints, a technique also known by the term paper relief print. By the late 1950s, many printmakers were searching for a cheap and efficient printmaking method that did not require a metal plate and various chemicals. Ross was one of the first to develop the collagraph technique which uses a paper support as its "plate." Pieces of paper or cardboard are then glued to the "plate" and create the printing surface that is then inked and printed. "Duomo" was created when Ross accompanied Romano to Italy after she won a Fulbright to work in Florence. Inspired by Brunelleschi's architectural masterpiece, the Florence Cathedral, "Duomo's" blocky, abstract design reflects the pervasive aesthetic of the 1950s.
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