Posts on Artsy

Artsy recently set me up as a featured contributor on their site. I know, I know, it sounds cool, but nothing's really happened with it yet. I'd love to get some followers and write a lot of important posts, but so far I've only written two short articles and I'm not sure what the point of it is. I do enjoy it. Maybe that's the point. 

Here's a link to my recent micro-article about Picasso erotica. I'll go out on a limb and say it's NSFW, but it's Picasso, so it's art, so it's okay? (I'd like to discuss this idea [that erotica in art is acceptable and other forms of erotic are not] at some point in the future as I think it's salient and crucial to the larger art historical conversation).

Bon chance,

Diana

If you can't manage to get onto Artsy, here's the text from the post:

These prints are among the last etchings that Picasso executed before his death in 1973.  Over seven months in 1968, Picasso worked on the 347 Series, a narrative collection of 347 etchings (to provide context, Rembrandt created 300 prints over his entire lifetime).  Loosely drawn, perspectives thrown, bodies contorted and grossly exaggerated, Picasso combined his cubist angles with soft naturalistic forms reminiscent of his Rose period to illustrate the narratives of musketeers, bullfighters, bordellos, and erotic and voyeuristic scenes. Picasso believed that "art can only be erotic;" sexual overtones dominate much of his oeuvre, especially in these later works. Whether he depicts a sexual encounter as a solitary act or as a pair of lovers passionately entwined or even prostitutes partaking in a full blown orgy, Picasso adeptly strips away the veil of propriety and provides us with a raw and honest portrayal of our most basic human instinct-to please and be pleased through sexual means. 

These specific images are examples of proofs pulled before steel facing of the etching plate, printed long before their respective editions were pulled, with more contrast and bolder lines than the regular editions. These proofs were kept by Picasso for his personal collection in the course of creating the 60, 156 and 347 Series. Steel facing is a modern technique whereby the soft copper plate into which the image is etched receives a thin coat of steel via electroplating in order to harden its surface. In this way an edition can be printed from beginning to end without degradation of image quality, unlike Rembrandt etchings, for example, whose bare copper plates wore down from the pressure of the press over the course of printing an edition. This resulted in a visible softening of lines, as well as a diminishing of subtle contrasts and tonal depth in examples from late in a print run. Although steel facing allows for consistent quality throughout an edition and is in this respect an improvement over a bare copper plate, the process necessarily reduces textural delicacy and tonal depth to some degree. Therefore, proofs before steel facing are the ultimate vehicles for displaying the authentic origination of the full expressive capacity of the etching process