Tulip. by Edgar Chahine, 1874-1947

Edgar Chahine, 1874-1947
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Tulip.

Original lithograph in colourwith mixed media and hand retouching. 2000. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 50. Printed by the artist. Issued by Editions Quedillart, Paris 2000.

Extremely fine impression with totally fresh colours. On hand-made off-white wove paper. Perfect condition. Worked virtually to the full sheet size, as issued. Sheet: 41 3/8 x 26 1/8ins (1050x665mm)

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Yuri Kuper is an artist whose extraordinary gifts and inspiration in the medium of lithography are earning him a position of the highest regard amongst curators and connoisseurs of contemporary printmaking. Although his ideas are about the appreciation of surface and space seen in a totally contemporary manner the actual technique of his printmaking uses a development of the most traditional handling of lithography. However through his passion for the differing printing qualities of inks, and the use of an inspired textural treatment of the lithographic stones, he has created images which seem to float over the surface of the sheet in a manner which is unique and extraordinarily evocative.

Kuper uses the representation of a simple object - here a single tulip with a gentle pink flower and pale green stem - to establish a visual point of departure. He then contradicts that reality by evoking a complete spatial ambiguity. The background is worked in an extraordinary subtle range of greys and blacks, with hints of purple, blue and metallic silvers which create a sense of constant fluidity and movement. The image is then further removed from reality by the way that the break in the stem suggests that it might even be carved into the stone. Kuper's prints take our concepts of space and reality to new limits, but remain intensely poetic and beautiful at the same time.

Kuper was born in Russia (the lettering in this image reads Tulip in Russian), emigrated first to Israel and then in 1972 to London. In 1975 he moved to Paris, but took on British citizenship. Since then whilst working in France he has had over 60 exhibitions in Europe, the Unites States and in the Far East, and his work has been bought for the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National gallery in Oslo, the Sainsbury Collection in England, the Staatliche Museum in Berlin and many other museum collections.