Untitled - Death and Santa (from the portfolio "Santa Claus - A Morality", nine etchings to accompany e.e. cummings' play) by Alexander Calder

Untitled - Death and Santa (from the portfolio Santa Claus - A Morality, nine etchings to accompany e.e. cummings play) by Alexander Calder

Untitled - Death and Santa (from the portfolio "Santa Claus - A Morality", nine etchings to accompany e.e. cummings' play)

Alexander Calder

Title

Untitled - Death and Santa (from the portfolio "Santa Claus - A Morality", nine etchings to accompany e.e. cummings' play)

 
Artist
Year
1974  
Technique
etching 
Image Size
13 11/16 x 18 11/16" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
147 of 175  
Annotations
pencil editioned, lower left 
Reference
Hogblen and Watson 154; V & A 154 
Paper
heavy cream Arches wove 
State
published 
Publisher
Editions de l'Herne, Paris 
Inventory ID
JPR109e 
Price
SOLD
Description
The fifth plate from the suite of etchings created to accompany the text, in both English and French, from e.e. cummings' most successful one-act play, "Santa Claus" (1946). “The play is an allegory in which Death and Santa Claus exchange masks, but a child sees through the masks to the true identity of each. Death is equated with Science, which ‘can sell people anything -- except understanding.’ In the end, Santa Claus, who is a young man beneath his mask, reveals himself to the child and her mother” (from: Spring, A Journal of the e.e. cummings Society).