Pegasus
12" x 14"
Edition of 50
1945 Atelier 17 Engraving and Soft Ground Etching
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Atelier 17 ︎︎︎
"This composition tried to express symbolically, the condition of the creative spirit at the end of World War II. Pegasus the winged worse, the dream symbol of man's creative imagination, tries to get out from under the remains of barbed wires and nets among the concrete tank traps. He makes a feeble attempt to rise on his forelegs. In the distance there are still explosions. The dark mesh, which arches over the horse, has a suggestion of a pelvic form which would indicate that awakening is more like birth. I had a feeling at that time (1945) that the great question of our era is whether this birth, or rebirth, of Pegasus will be a living lasting success or not. It is not enough to have rockets and bombers flying high in the air while man's creative soul with its dreams is permanently grounded.
The technique of this copper plate is a combination of straight burin engraving and soft ground etching. The method applied I learned at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 on Christmas of 1945 in New York."
Leo Katz
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