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Archipelago II

Print
1998 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Archipelago II is one of a series of images made by Sergei Tsvetkov using irregularly shaped geometric plates, reconfigured from image to image. The series was made using the technique of open-bite or deep-bite etching. Here the technique gives the appearance of an antique map, with eroded and rugged coastlines suggested rather than clearly defined.

Given that the artist is an émigré from the former Soviet Union, the title of this print calls to mind Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel The Gulag Archipelago (1973) about the vast system of penal labour camps scattered like invisible islands throughout Russia.

Anne Appelbaum, an American journalist who travelled to the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, was struck by the absence of memory about these camps. Tsvetkov’s work may both commemorate this reign of terror and acknowledge its loss from the collective memory. Like many artists from the former Soviet Union, Tsvetkov seems to have developed a way of making images that carry disturbing undertones but can also be read as something more innocent.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleArchipelago II (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Open-bite etching on paper
Brief description
'Archipelago II', open bite etching from two irregular shaped plates, by Sergei Tsvetkov; United States, 1998
Physical description
Image from two separate, irregular geometric plates which look as if they have 'tectonically shifted' away from each other down a central fault line. Near the centre of image a small red rectangular shape and on left margin, same shape inverted, printed in black. The overall image is abstract but resembles the patterns one might expect from rusty or unevently bitten or corroded sheets of metal but they also have something of the appearance of old maps. The ground of each plate is printed in a cream colour, shading to brown. with the lines of the etching black.
Dimensions
  • Height: 78.8cm
  • Width: 53.9cm
Production typeLimited edition
Marks and inscriptions
'Sergei Tsvetkov [not clearly legible]'98. / Archipelago II' (Signature; date; title. All in pencil)
Gallery label
  • This print was made using irregularly shaped plates, arranged differently from image to image. The open-bite etching technique gives the appearance of an antique map that has fallen apart, or a territory that has been divided up. Tsetkov explains, ‘The interaction between cultural and historical symbols, the remnants of powerful empires, has become a strong force in my art making.’(22/20/2016)
  • Archipelago II is one of a series of images made by Sergei Tsvetkov using irregularly shaped geometric plates reconfigured from image to image. The technique of open-bite or deep-bite etching here gives the appearance of an antique map with eroded and rugged coastlines suggested rather than clearly defined.(2007)
Credit line
Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Archipelago II is one of a series of images made by Sergei Tsvetkov using irregularly shaped geometric plates, reconfigured from image to image. The series was made using the technique of open-bite or deep-bite etching. Here the technique gives the appearance of an antique map, with eroded and rugged coastlines suggested rather than clearly defined.

Given that the artist is an émigré from the former Soviet Union, the title of this print calls to mind Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel The Gulag Archipelago (1973) about the vast system of penal labour camps scattered like invisible islands throughout Russia.

Anne Appelbaum, an American journalist who travelled to the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, was struck by the absence of memory about these camps. Tsvetkov’s work may both commemorate this reign of terror and acknowledge its loss from the collective memory. Like many artists from the former Soviet Union, Tsvetkov seems to have developed a way of making images that carry disturbing undertones but can also be read as something more innocent.
Collection
Accession number
E.3583-2004

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Record createdDecember 26, 2005
Record URL
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