Untitled II

In this print, Puryear, an internationally renowned artist, has created a form that lies somewhere between the figurative and the abstract.  The shape is vessel-like, but is not a clear representation of an actual receptacle.  Puryear has explored the theme of the vessel in much of his work, allowing them to become metaphors for universal ideas and fundamental human concerns.  The plates of this image had spitbite aquatint added to them and then subtracted through a process of sanding, resulting in a background of subtle tone and texture.  The outline of the vessel is a solid divider between the body of the form and the surrounding area, again alluding to the contrasting ideas of freedom and confinement.