Untitled Etching

Untitled Etching is closely related to a group of brightly colored relief sculptures that Bontecou made in 1966. The sculptures’ striped curvilinear forms suggest the hard shells of mollusks or the billowing sails of fantastical airships, neither entirely manmade nor entirely natural. In this print, the artist experimented with a palette similar to her sculptures (black accompanied by orange, red, or brown), finally settling upon black and orange for the published print.