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Pat Steir and John Yau
Sky’s Four Sides: color lithograph and encaustic
Sky’s First Poem: color lithograph
Rain Pillow: color lithograph
Horizon’s Levitation: color lithograph
Artist Pat Steir (b. 1940) and poet John Yau (b. 1950) collaborated to create four elegant lithographs combining image and text on backgrounds of intense color. As a suite, they explore the interrelation of the painterly gesture and the printed word and the emotional and intellectual impact of color and open space.
All of the prints except one are created entirely with lithographic techniques–flat or blended rolls and photolithography. The exception is Sky’s Four Sides, where Steir’s sweeping mark is printed with pigmented beeswax, in a Graphicstudio process called waxtype. The translucent textured wax floats over the saturated color, like a glass magnifying the words, or a cloud punctuating the meaning of the sky.