Michael Knigin. (1942 - 2011) Woman Playing a Poppin (After Utamaro), 1981. Large-format Screenprint.
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Click here for a detailed enlargement of the title.
Click here for a further detailed enlargement of the signature.
We are showing this exciting print made by one of America’s leading printmakers of the 20th century as part of our Art of the Print exhibition. The print takes a woodblock print by the 18th century artist Utamaro; a poppin or popin being a small glass noise-maker. The Utamaro is an image of frivolity and entertainment. Knigin uses the original design - an image chosen surely for its depiction of simple pleasure and relaxation - and superimposes it against a skyline of downtown Manhattan… an image of modern noise, stress and anxiety; the metropolis made grey and inhuman. This contrast perhaps amplifies the changed and uncomfortable nature of the urban condition. The print is very large - 86cm x 66cm, beautifully produced and in perfect condition.
Silkscreen print is a different process to woodblock and relies on passing ink through a partly painted out mesh using a squeegee rather than the transfer of ink from a raised and carved block. Silkscreen enables very large prints to be made - as in this case - and like woodblock printing, it tends to rely on black key lines and flat colour blocks. Most people do not realise that the origins of silkscreen printing, (serigraph, as in the cultivation of silkworms, or sericulture) began in Edo Japan.
Michael Knigin was a native of New York, a Professor at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York and co-owner of the Chiron Press where he worked with Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, and Tom Wesselman. In this way he echoed the careers of ukiyo-e printmakers like Toyokuni who were robustly involved in the business of designing, printing and publishing. Knigin is well regarded in the States, a commissioned artist by Nasa for major space events and his work is held in collections of Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and many other institutions. Knign’s work has gone up in value over the last few years and prices currently vary between $850 and $1500 for prints of this size and condition, making this current price for the work a good investment.
The print breathes life into the form. It is often erroneously listed as a lithograph, it is in fact a limited edition screen-print from an edition of 225. The print is hand signed by the artist in pencil: Knigin 81, and hand titled: Woman Playing a Poppin, After Utamaro. The edition number is 67.
The work itself is very large, the sheet size is 86cm x 66cm. Colour, impression and condition are very fine.
81 x 61cm.
