Escape

Clinton Blair King

In 1971 Clinton Blair King was seventy years old, and his artistic pursuits had taken him on a winding path from his original destination as the heir to a candy manufacturing empire in Fort Worth, Texas to a fully fledged career artist. He taught himself how to paint while an undergraduate at Princeton University, and before long he had immersed himself in the world of Texas, New York, and Mexico post-Impressionist art scenes. While starting out in Realism with a focus on still lifes and cityscapes, Cubism, Abstraction, and aspects of Surrealism and Symbolism were all explored by King in his 40-plus years as a working artist.

More than a cursory dip into non-representational abstraction, the late-life “Escape” exemplifies King’s continued interest in investigating the many genres of the 20th century, and his enthusiasm for the forward momentum of art into unexplored territory. He studied printmaking with S.W. Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York where the printmakers were developing the simultaneous color (viscosity) methods.

This composition is of a gentle yet lively quality, highlighting his use of automatic line and viscosity printing. Bold red outlines sizzle against the violets and blues of a background that’s been layered in subtle textures on the plate, a nod to the pioneering experimental printmakers of the early and mid 20th century.