Vol De Nuit (Flight of Night)

 

Ryuco Utsumi

  1921 - PRESENT

1976  

color aquatint & intaglio 

22 3/4 x 16 1/2" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

E. A. 

titled, dated and annotated "E.A." in pencil 

 

ivory wove Rives 

proof 

artist 

7887 

$400.00 

Very little is found on the San Francisco-based printmaker Ryuco Utsumi, who studied at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 after it had reopened in Paris in the 1950s. In this Surrealist composition, the artist’s mastery of the etching tools is evident, as is their imagination and willingness to explore the cerebral.

“Vol de Nuit,” which loosely translates as

“Flight of Night,”

appears to be the physical manifestation of a dream. Serene faces tumble toward the viewer within the fluctuations of a wave-like form. A single star burns in the dark abyss. Utsumi employs aquatint to produce a velvety night sky and to provide the sculptural depth of the faces, each exactly alike.