(Spanish Dancers)

Eduard Buk Ulreich

An early monotype by American printmaker Eduard Ulreich who signed his work "BUK" (not to be confused with writer / painter Charles Bukowski who also used BUK). This color monotype is of two Spanish Flamenco dancers and a guitarist.

Ulreich flattens the plane of the composition, assembling the figures and their surroundings into a dynamic Cubist puzzle with the different elements fitting nimbly together. The intimate cabaret-like setting features two Spanish dancers and a guitarist draped in shadows and moody lights, the silhouette of a rose tossed to the performers lying in the foreground. Ulreich’s style, emblematic of the time, lent itself to muralism and in the 1930s he worked for the WPA creating mosaics and frescoes for federal buildings throughout the Midwest and East Coast.

In this piece, the woman wears an elaborate white lace mantilla and wields a yellow fan; in the background, her partner awaits his moment to enter the stage. They are likely about to perform a bolero or fandango, both dances noted for the use of castanets held in the hands of the dancers, their arms curled up and out over their heads.