The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

White Scaffolding

White Scaffolding

1946
(American, 1904–1971)
America, 20th century
engraving and soft ground etching on paper
Image: 34.3 x 25.1 cm (13 1/2 x 9 7/8 in.); Sheet: 46 x 33 cm (18 1/8 x 13 in.)
The Charlotte Ekker and Charlotte Van der Veer Memorial Fund 2019.230
© The Estate of Alice Trumbull Mason / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This print was once in the collection of artist Stanley William Hayter, founder of the print workshop Atelier 17 where Alice Trumbull Mason made the print.

Description

Alice Trumbull Mason worked in the New York print workshop Atelier 17 in 1945, and there explored the relationship of biomorphic shapes across texture, colors, and dimensional planes, contending that the artist’s chosen medium—not the content—contains an abstract work’s most expressive potential. White Scaffolding consists of white lines that form a structured framework over softer patterns, shapes, and expressive lines in nuanced gray tones. Mason achieved the scrim-like effect of the background by pressing a ruched tulle fabric into the soft etching ground.
  • Stanley William Hayter [1901-1988], Paris, France
    (Dolan/Maxwell, Inc., Philadelphia, PA)
    December 2, 2019
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Mason, Alice Trumbull. Alice Trumbull Mason: Etchings and Woodcuts. New York, N.Y.: Taplinger Pub. Co, 1985. p. 10, 19, plate VI
  • {{cite web|title=White Scaffolding|url=false|author=Alice Trumbull Mason|year=1946|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.230