Bird in Two

Sam Tchakalian

Bay Area artist Sam Tchakalian created a series of large, black and white Abstract Expressionist lithographs in the early 1960s, an evolutionary period between earning his MFA and beginning a full time teaching career at the San Francisco Art Institute. This allowed the artist, known primarily for his large paintings, to explore and develop his printmaking style.

Like his paintings, the size of the matrix informed the raw physicality of his application of color, and in Bird in Two we witness this in full: the more space Tchakalian is given, the more movement his hand, arm, and torso are given to communicate his vision onto the blank field. The final product is a dance as much as it is a litho crayon on stone.