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Kisses and Crosses 2000

Print
07/03/2000 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Bob Law was a leading figure in British art from the early 1960s when he was closely involved in the Minimal and Conceptual movements. His work has been associated with the St Ives tradition, and he was certainly influenced by meetings with Peter Lanyon and Ben Nicholson in the 1950s. His work is characterised by a pared-down graphic language, and he creates a range of expressive variations on a theme with great economy of means. This print is from a suite of etchings (his first prints) which continue his concern with diagrammatic or plan-like imagery, and they clearly have formal links with his 'field drawings'. Indeed the etchings are based on a series of 18 drawings made early in 2000. Law's work exploits the fluid borders between figuration and abstraction, and in these prints he plays with various juxtapositions of the signs for a kiss and a cross. These simple linear motifs invoke variously love, religion, rejection, and ideas of national identity, and simultaneously connote affection and connection as well as cancellation and censorship. Some combinations suggest flags, or systems of communication such as semaphore.

There is a close correlation between these prints and the drawings which inspired them. The drawings were made by a kind of etching process, in which the ground is not a metal plate, but the paper itself. Using a ruler and a screw the artist gouged into black-coated Arches paper to the white beneath. The resulting scratched markings were transferred onto an etching plate by the process of photogravure.

Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Kisses and Crosses 2000 (series title)
  • CCCXXXVIII. DOUBLE DOUBLE CROSSES (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Etching on paper
Brief description
'CCCXXXVIII. DOUBLE DOUBLE CROSSES', etching in portfolio 'Kisses and Crosses 2000' by Bob Law, published by artHester, UK, 2000.
Physical description
Etching on paper, white intersecting lines on black background; title and artist name / date in capital letters along lower edge.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 47cm
  • Sheet width: 54cm
Copy number
12/30
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'BOB LAW 07.03.00' (Artist's name and date)
  • 'BOB LAW 12/30' (Artist's name and edition number)
Credit line
Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund
Subject depicted
Summary
Bob Law was a leading figure in British art from the early 1960s when he was closely involved in the Minimal and Conceptual movements. His work has been associated with the St Ives tradition, and he was certainly influenced by meetings with Peter Lanyon and Ben Nicholson in the 1950s. His work is characterised by a pared-down graphic language, and he creates a range of expressive variations on a theme with great economy of means. This print is from a suite of etchings (his first prints) which continue his concern with diagrammatic or plan-like imagery, and they clearly have formal links with his 'field drawings'. Indeed the etchings are based on a series of 18 drawings made early in 2000. Law's work exploits the fluid borders between figuration and abstraction, and in these prints he plays with various juxtapositions of the signs for a kiss and a cross. These simple linear motifs invoke variously love, religion, rejection, and ideas of national identity, and simultaneously connote affection and connection as well as cancellation and censorship. Some combinations suggest flags, or systems of communication such as semaphore.

There is a close correlation between these prints and the drawings which inspired them. The drawings were made by a kind of etching process, in which the ground is not a metal plate, but the paper itself. Using a ruler and a screw the artist gouged into black-coated Arches paper to the white beneath. The resulting scratched markings were transferred onto an etching plate by the process of photogravure.
Collection
Accession number
E.2079:11-2004

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Record createdMarch 26, 2007
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