Eve

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Ministry of Defence, Main Building, Whitehall

Eve is the ninth of ten etchings from the portfolio, La Genèse, that Jennifer Dickson made while she was pregnant, an experience that influenced the symbolic imagery of life and growth in the compositions. Eve follows Et Dieu Créa La Femme, a subject that was inspired by the story of the Creation in the Book of Genesis, representing the Sixth Day, on which God created woman. In Dickson’s red and blue print, the curvaceous form of a woman’s torso dominates the composition, a symbol of what Dickson described as ‘Energy and sensuality and [the] power of female sexuality...’ The form is overlaid with patterned, textural forms that seem to radiate from the woman’s body as if to focus our attention on the subject. Dickson acknowledged the influence of Op Art and especially the artist, Bridget Riley on her print series. The series was editioned and printed by Editions Alecto in London, the pioneering print publishers who produced contemporary artists’ prints in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s, and promoted the idea of painters and sculptors being given the freedom to originate and realize ideas in multiple form.

South African-born Jennifer Dickson trained as a painter and printmaker at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art, London from 1954 to 1959, and pursued graduate studies in etching with Stanley William Hayter at the Atelier 17, Paris from 1960 to 1965. She went on to found and direct the graduate printmaking programme at Brighton College of Art (now Brighton University) and was instrumental in integrating photography into the curriculum in the early 1960s. Dickson moved to Canada in 1969, where she taught at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montréal. She was made a member of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers, London in 1965; was elected Royal Academician in 1976 (ARA 1970); and honoured with the Order of Canada (1995). Her work is represented in collections across Europe, the United States, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Dickson lives and works in Ottawa, Canada.

Places

Subjects

abstract, torso, breast, woman, Old Testament

Materials & Techniques

etching, colour etching, aquatint

Artist

Jennifer Dickson (1936 - )

Title

Eve

Portfolio Title

La Genèse (Genesis)

Edition

4/50

Date

1965

Medium

Colour etching and aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Editions Alecto, May 1972

Inscription

below image: 4/50 / Ève. / Jennifer Dickson '65.

GAC number

9643