Color etching and aquatint on cream wove paper, 1968. 596x488 mm; 23 1/2x19 1/4 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from an unknown edition. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "A/Proof" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by the artist at the University of Wisconsin.
Part of Lev Mills's masters thesis in printmaking, Contamination is an extremely scarce print. Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Mills lived and worked in Atlanta, Georgia. Mills studied printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the late 1960s. He received his BA from Florida A&M University, his MA and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a postgraduate certificate from the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College - University of London. Mills' career was split between being a working visual artist and an educator. He taught at Spelman College for thirty years, including fourteen years as the art department chair, before retiring in 2009. His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the British Museum, London, and MOCA Georgia.
