Spreading Spade
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color aquatint with spitbite etching and drypoint on Arches Satine paper
Dimensions
image: 45.7 x 48.3 cm (18 x 19 in.) sheet: 88.3 x 78.1 cm (34 3/4 x 30 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Eugene L. and Marie-Louise Garbáty Fund and Patrons' Permanent Fund
Accession Number
1996.77.54
Art Historical Context
Richard Diebenkorn's *Spreading Spade* (1981) is a captivating color aquatint print that showcases the artist's late-career mastery of printmaking. By this time, Diebenkorn—renowned for his luminous abstract landscapes in the Ocean Park series and his shifts between abstraction and Bay Area Figurative painting—had embraced etching as a way to explore color, form, and spatial ambiguity with fresh intimacy. Measuring 45.7 x 48.3 cm (18 x 19 in.) on the image and printed on luxurious Arches Satine paper, this work from the National Gallery of Art's collection invites viewers into a world of subtl...
About the Artist
Richard Diebenkorn
Richard Clifford Diebenkorn Jr. (1922-1993) was one of the premier American painters of the postwar era, whose deeply lyrical abstractions and figurative works evoked the shimmering light and wide-open spaces of California. Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in San Francisco, Diebenkorn became a pivotal figure in elevating the status of California art on the international stage. His career encom...