Color screenprint on white wove paper, 1964-65. 515x614 mm; 20 1/2x24 1/4 inches (sheet), full margins. From an intended edition of 200, though significantly fewer impressions have been found, indicating an unrealized edition. Signed and dated "65" in ink, lower right. Printed by Stephen Poleskie, Chiron Press, New York. Published by Tanglewood Press, New York. A superb impression with vibrant colors.
According to the printer Poleskie, "At that time we were close friends and she (de Kooning) was one of the first to work with me in my print shop. I recently found some photographs of her in my studio, Chiron Press. Eddie (Johnson) was also a sculptor and a film maker. We collaborated on a movie called The Bird Film, which was widely shown back then at places like The Bridge Cinema in New York and the Yale Film Festival . . . Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) was an associate producer, and many of the movie's scenes were shot on her farm at Livingston Manor in upstate New York. Eddie also took the photographs that appeared in Life magazine when Elaine painted her famous, or infamous, portrait of President John F. Kennedy.
Elaine's screenprint was done from her "bulls" series. It was printed in six colors, and Elaine made all the stencils herself, with my help and supervision, using the tusche and glue technique. This process is quite time consuming, and few of the artists I worked with back then were willing to put in the effort required to make a print this way. Elaine and I made a lot of test prints and pulled proofs in many different color combinations. Elaine was a true painter at heart . . . [she] was one of the few artists that actually got her hands dirty making a print."
A series of seven progressive proofs of this subject were sold at Swann, June 4, 2009, sale 2182, lot 252. One of the proofs was printed on a sheet over the image Seascape (I), screenprint printed in blue, 1964-65, by Roy Lichtenstein that was also printed at Chiron Press at the time (Corlett 36).
