EOS (also called "Esso") by Dennis Ray Beall

EOS (also called Esso) by Dennis Ray Beall

EOS (also called "Esso")

Dennis Ray Beall

Title

EOS (also called "Esso")

 
Artist

Dennis Ray Beall

  1929 - PRESENT (biography)
Year
1960  
Technique
mixed technique color intaglio 
Image Size
15 5/8 x 23 3/4" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
proof 
Annotations
dated in pencil and inscribed "1st state"; also titled "Esso" (sic) by the artist in pencil 
Reference
 
Paper
ivory Arches wove 
State
1st state 
Publisher
never editioned 
Inventory ID
DENB176 
Price
SOLD
Description

Oklahoma born printmaker Dennis Beall began working abstractly with color lithography as a student at San Francisco State College in the early 1950s. A friendship with printmaker John Ihle led him to working in intaglio in the late 1950s. "Eos" was done in 1960 using a combination of intaglio techniques to accomplish this AbEx composition.

These dynamic, abstract images were shunned by the art market at the time and Beall, like many of the Bay Area AbEx printmakers, was more interested in the process than the commercial success it may have. This composition was inscribed "1st State" but was never editioned. Titled "Eos" beneath the image he also titled it "Esso" in the margin.

Beall was registrar at the Oakland Museum of California briefly in 1958 before becoming a curator at the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco, working with Gunter Troche. He held that position until 1965 when he began his teaching career at San Francisco State University where he taught printmaking.