Picasso at the Zoo

Object NamePrint

Artist / Maker Warrington Colescott (American, 1921-)

Date1978

MediumColor intaglio etching with aquatint on paper

Dimensions21 3/4 x 27 1/2 in. (55.2 x 69.9 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of the Department of Art & Design, Robert J. Hromyak Friends, and Friends and Colleagues of Robert J. Hromyak. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, Univeristy Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberum87.4

Status

Not on view

Collections

Works of Art on Paper & Photography

CultureAmerican

EditionArtist Proof

Label TextColescott's History of Printmaking combined a montage of places and events with humor that yielded visual puns, whimsical asides, and examined eleven milestones in the history of the medium. Colescott takes free license to reinterpret history in this series, readily and sacrificing complete accuracy for a witty and crude, if necessary, version of what could have happened. The History of Printmaking series draws upon styles, biographies, and relevant social histories of particular artists with the purpose of emphasizing the quality of their art and, if possible, drawing parallels with our own time. The History of Printmaking suite is composed of eleven prints and is a masterpiece on many levels: in storytelling, in imagery, and in technique and skill. Other series prints include: Ben Franklin at Versailles; Goya Studies War; Durer at 23, in Venice, in Love, his bags stolen; Rembrandt Bankrupt; S.W. Hayter Discovers Viscosity Printmaking; Entry of Lasansky into Iowa City; Picasso at the Zoo; Senefelder Receives the Secrets of Lithography; Lunch with Lautrec; Rauschenberg at Tamarind, in Hollywood; and The Last Printmaker. In Picasso at the Zoo, seventh in the History of Printmaking series, Colescott imagined the greatest artist of the 20th century as any other Spanish father entertaining his children on a Sunday afternoon. What makes Picasso a unique parent is that he is strolling amongst caged creatures of his own creation, masked women, somber diners, and the newly captured Minotaur--images which are familiar to any admirer of Picasso's art. Colescott's art is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Minneapolis Art Center, Walker Art Center, Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, and numerous other museums in the United States and abroad.

SignedWarrington Colescott 1978 in pencil, lower right.

Locations