I’ve listened to a couple of interesting interviews now where Glenn Ligon talks about Glenn Ligon: All Over The Place, the show he’s organized of his work and the collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Now it turns out there’s a benefit print for the show.
It’s a digital print based on one of his recent drawings he calls Kozo Drawings on his site, after the kind of paper (mulberry). In the edition description, they’re explained as frottage, graphite rubbings Ligon made of the craggy surface of his own paintings. In this case, it’s a painting of a text from James Baldwin.
There’s something interesting about Ligon adding another layer to the mediation of his text pictures, particularly when it depends on their [also] being an object. Then there’s something else when the rough, fragile, abradedd sheet is translated to an ultrasmooth print. It feels almost like a facsimile. [And speaking of which, I can’t lie, as interesting as the print and drawings are, it was the sleek black envelope the print ships in that pushed me over the blogging edge. I’ve been making janky versions for Facsimile Objects, and this looks so much sleeker.]
Ironically, the prints were produced at Griffin in NYC, but now will ship from the UK. All for a good cause, though.
Glenn Ligon, Untitled, 2024 Limited Edition Print, GBP 1200 or so [curatingcambridge.co.uk via ig/@glennligon]