Crystal

 

Shirley E. Witebsky

  1925 - 1965 (biography)

c. 1960  

color viscosity etching 

17 x 11 7/8" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

A/P (artist's proof) color trial proof. 

titled and editioned in pencil; "Imp. by the artist" 

 

antique-white Arches 

proof 

Guilde de la Gravure 

15657 

SOLD

This is a color trial proof of "Crystal" which was published in Paris by the Guilde de la Gravure in an edition of 50 in another coloration. Witebsky, using the simultaneous color printing techniques developed at Atelier 17. She creates the illusion of a three dimensional, crystalline structure, suspended in liquid and in which light and color appear to bounce around the interior.

Around 1952 Shirley Witebsky left for France to study with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 where she met fellow printmaker Krishna Reddy. They were later married and she and Krishna returned to the United States. Witebsky died just short of her forty-first birthday from breast cancer.

Witebsky's graphic work was sold through Roten Galleries, based in Baltimore, Maryland, which sold original prints at universities throughout the United States from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. Because of this, her work is represented in numerous university and private print collections throughout the country, including the collections of the California State University at Long Beach and Oregon State University.