Warrington Colescott

Death in Venice: Warrington Colescott and Thomas Mann

Henry Street Gallery: June 6, 2015 through April 17, 2016 (note revised ending date)

press release: A leading American printmaker and satirist, Warrington Colescott continues the tradition of Francisco Goya, William Hogarth, and Honoré Daumier. Residing in Wisconsin and long-affiliated with the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Colescott is widely known for his innovative use of intaglio techniques. 

When approached by Aquarius Press to create illustrations for a deluxe livre d’artiste, a tradition of matching author and artist that originated in Paris in the late nineteenth century, Colescott immediately named Thomas Mann’s celebrated novella Death in Venice as his first choice. The following year he completed and published a portfolio of ten color etchings illustrating Mann’s text. 

The exhibition Death in Venice brings together a broad array of works. It includes the original series of vibrant color prints as well as a dramatic monochromatic version that Colescott produced with the same copper plates in black and white with subtle washes of color. Both sets of etchings come from the museum’s permanent collection. Presented together, the two series show how variables of color can dramatically alter our emotional responses to the same image. To showcase Colescott’s creative process, the artist has generously loaned to MMoCA a body of his related preparatory drawings, prints and other materials.