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Black Dice

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  • John Baldessari, Peter Kneubühler, Black Dice, 1982, color aquatint, photo etching, soft ground and lift ground on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.31.1A-I, © 1982, Peter Blum Edition and Blumarts, Inc., New York

Black Dice is based on a still photograph derived from an English gangster film of that name. The photograph represents a split second from a longer, continuous narrative. The artist divided the image into nine equal sections and developed each as an independent abstract composition in which key elements of the original scene remain identifiable. Baldessari is interested in things exploding and imploding, and being disjunctive. He likes to include the original movie still when the prints are exhibited so that the viewer can better understand the individual parts as well as the whole.

Multiplicity, 2011
Title
Black Dice
Artists
John Baldessari
Peter Kneubühler
Printer
Peter Kneubühler
Publishers
John Baldessari
Peter Blum Edition
Peter Kneubühler
Date
1982
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 16 1⁄2 x 19 3⁄4 in. (41.9 x 50.2 cm)
Copyright
© 1982, Peter Blum Edition and Blumarts, Inc., New York
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Museum purchase

Mediums Description
color aquatint, photo etching, soft ground and lift ground on paper
Classifications
Graphic Arts
Print
Keywords
  • Figure male
  • State of being – evil – danger
Object Number
1993.31.1A-I
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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