About The Work
The graphic composition of the Mother & Child prints echo art historical antecedents, from the earliest surviving “Virgin and Child” painting at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt of the 6th century to Medieval and Renaissance versions from golden Byzantine icons to Botticelli’s tender rendering in 1480, right up to more contemporary touchstones like, say, Annie Leibovitz’s 2014 photograph of Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and their first child. McGinness’ prints not only add to the mix of this sprawling visual genealogy but also rely on it for legibility.
The image of a mother holding her offspring is thoroughly enshrined in the canon of art history, while also speaking to the universal human experience of holding and being held as a child. This is crucial for McGinness, who always strives to achieve the “anonymous authoritative visual vocabulary” of the clip art that first piqued his interest in visual culture when he was in high school. In Mother & Child, he seems to have found one of the essential building blocks of our shared visual vocabulary, one that integrates personal experience with a wealth of earlier artworks. McGinness’ manipulations of that iconic composition dazzle not only through their color palettes but also through the economy and elegance of their pared-down forms, which strive for global legibility while remaining distinctly his own.
Excerpt from Editions ’17 by Benjamin Sutton
Courtesy of Lower East Side Print Shop
About Ryan McGinness
From The Magazine
Screenprint monoprint
60.00 x 42.00 in
152.4 x 106.7 cm
This work is signed by the artist in pencil, and is embossed with the publisher's printing chop.
About The Work
The graphic composition of the Mother & Child prints echo art historical antecedents, from the earliest surviving “Virgin and Child” painting at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt of the 6th century to Medieval and Renaissance versions from golden Byzantine icons to Botticelli’s tender rendering in 1480, right up to more contemporary touchstones like, say, Annie Leibovitz’s 2014 photograph of Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and their first child. McGinness’ prints not only add to the mix of this sprawling visual genealogy but also rely on it for legibility.
The image of a mother holding her offspring is thoroughly enshrined in the canon of art history, while also speaking to the universal human experience of holding and being held as a child. This is crucial for McGinness, who always strives to achieve the “anonymous authoritative visual vocabulary” of the clip art that first piqued his interest in visual culture when he was in high school. In Mother & Child, he seems to have found one of the essential building blocks of our shared visual vocabulary, one that integrates personal experience with a wealth of earlier artworks. McGinness’ manipulations of that iconic composition dazzle not only through their color palettes but also through the economy and elegance of their pared-down forms, which strive for global legibility while remaining distinctly his own.
Excerpt from Editions ’17 by Benjamin Sutton
Courtesy of Lower East Side Print Shop
About Ryan McGinness
From The Magazine
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