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Object NameEtching

Artist / Maker Jay Norwood Darling (American, 1876 - 1962)

Date1956

MediumEtching on paper

Dimensions8 3/16 x 10 1/4 in. (20.8 x 26 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM82.154

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextDarling retired as editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register and Tribune in 1949, and predictably, his impulse for satire eventually found expression in his prints. This cartoon-like image of a porcupine threatening a turtle could well have been found on the front page of the newspaper, along with it's title. This was made at the height of the Cold War during the period of hydrogen bomb tests and bomb shelters. This impression is printed in black, but others are known in ochre, and one is washed in blue-gray watercolor. Darling often adhered his acetate plates, which were thin, ta a copper or zinc plate to give needed thickness for the press. Remarkably, this plate was adhered to a zic plate by Gordon Grant, with an image of sailors in front of rigged sailboats. Darling may have made two versions of this plate, for one impression bears the notation "trial proof of #2 plate", but this is the only evidence for a second plate.

SignedJ.N. Darling '56 in pencil, lower right

Object Titles[com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.ObjectTitle@9a2f]

Locations