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Drypoint print on white Crisbrook Waterleaf paper. Signed by the artist, numbered 7/10, and dated 1972 lower center in pencil. Edition 10: this impression 7/10.
Drawn by the artist and printed at the same time as Jim Dine’s “Thirty Bones of My Body” portfolio. Here, a bottle opener points upward, silhouetted by a single black line. Seeming to press against the expanse of light grey forming the background, the bottle opener’s mouth emanates long, wispy strands of hair. At the opener’s base, a few stray strands thread through a hole.
The hand tool is undoubtedly Jim Dine’s most iconic motif. Meticulously catalogued in rows like scientific specimens or sketched individually, hammers, awls, brushes, saws and screwdrivers assume a visceral symbolism. Curvilinear handles evoke the contours of limbs or bones, and even metal points and blades seem organic under Dine’s thoughtful hand. In this series of dry point prints, each tool is positioned vertically. Standing in for the artist’s body, the phallic shapes are gently shaded, appearing pressed into the soft grey background. Wisps of hair creep up and around each tool, as if the instruments themselves were sprouting from the body. Dine’s deft draftsmanship tempers the grotesque possibilities of this inanimate hirsutism, while the delicate, soft quality of dry point lines enhances the intimate nature of these portraits.
