Carroll Dunham has been exploring lithography continuously since the mid-1980s, when he was first invited to work at Universal Limited Art Editions. This print is the last piece of a years-long investigation encapsulated in the book Green Period., recently published by JRP Editions. The investigation took the form of monotypes, drawings, paintings, and lithographs, of which this is both the most recent and final.

The subject is in part typical of Dunham’s longtime interest in rendering simplified human heads from behind in three quarter view, a perspective as if looking “over the shoulder” of the figure. The loose geometric structures in which the character is embedded are spatially ambiguous while seeming to contain the activity of the protagonist.

This lithograph began with drawings made with watercolor in sandwiches of blotter paper. Once the medium is transferred between the sheets Dunham separated and reorganized these registered layers, which were then scanned and transferred to lithographic plates. After proofing, the resulting images became the basis for further hand work by the artist on layers of transparent mylar and aluminum plates. The printing process fuses these interlocking elements into a dense spatial matrix constructed of the thin sheets of ink characteristic of the lithographic surface.