Abstract Form with Small Egg

Glen Earl Alps

Glen Alps studied with Mauricio Lasansky in Iowa, where he learned all the intaglio techniques that were being taught there in the 1940s.

This early (1948) abstraction of a pelican utelizes line etching, engraving, soft-ground etching, aquatint and open bite to create rich patterns, values and tones. The viewers eye moves from one element in the composition to another, each of interest, and then back to the whole composition, where everything comes together.

His early interest in experimental imagery led Alps to the method he coined the word for, "collagraph", which involved collaging elements to the intaglio plate, inking and printing them from both the intaglio and the surface, creating a print with a third dimension.