Guy Crittington Maccoy’s abstract serigraph of two figures is exemplary of the art form’s transition from commercial into pure fine art in the mid century. Minimalist, totem-like shapes are stacked and layered to present a scene of communication, in which one form, the queen, connects to the other, perhaps a fetus, from within the confines of their respective spaces - one bright blue, the other dark chocolate - as if one is reassuring the other. Here, the theory of modern primitivism is as clear when described with Maccoy’s screen as it is with his contemporaries’ brushes.
Guy Maccoy is often referred to as one of the founders of artistic serigraphy, promoting the use of silkscreen - which until the late 1920s had been relegated to commercial works - as a fine art technique unto itself, as promoted in the WPA in the late 1930s.
Maccoy was known for his intricate, detailed process whereby the inks, which sit on the surface of the paper rather than being pressed into the sheet, a la intaglio, are painstakingly separated by hue and texture, and applied in careful execution to achieve a painterly quality. His more complex works could employ more than 100 color runs to produce.