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Exhibition Introduction

Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Keith
John
Leslie
Self-Portrait

Introduction
Touched Red
Green
Combination
High Green Version 1

Introduction
17 Drawings by Thoreau
Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing)
Changes and Disappearances
Where R=Ryoanji
Fire
The Missing Stone
75 Stones
Eninka
Stones
Where There is Where There

Introduction
Anne Appleby
Pia Fries
Darren Almond
Susan Middleton
Joel Fisher
Brad Brown
Tom Marioni

Introduction
Mamma Andersson
Sol LeWitt
Fred Wilson
Robert Bechtle
Kiki Smith

Introduction
Julie Mehretu
Wayne Thiebaud
Jockum Nordström
Tomma Abts
Nathan Oliveira
Chris Ofili

Introduction
Pat Steir
Laura Owens
Wayne Thiebaud
Amy Sillman

Tomma Abts

Tomma Abts, Untitled (diagonals), 2009

Untitled (diagonals) (working proof)
2009
color aquatint and softground etching with colored pencil
and grapite additions
plate: 18 × 12 7⁄8 (45.7 × 32.7)
sheet: 27 × 21 (68.6 × 53.3)
Crown Point Press
Tomma Abts, Untitled (diagonals), 2009

Untitled (diagonals)
2009
color aquatint and softground etching
plate: 18 × 12 7⁄8 (45.7 × 32.7)
sheet: 23 1⁄4 × 17 3⁄4 (59.1 × 45.1)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,
2011

Abts explains that she begins with “no plans, sketches or preconceptions” and is motivated by “not knowing what the outcome might be.” Operating without a preconceived endpoint, her intention shifted in Untitled (diagonals), as reflected in changes in the composition and color.

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Tomma Abts (left) with printer Ianne Kjorlie (right) at Crown Point Press, 2009, photograph by Kathan Brown, Courtesy Crown Point Press

Banner Image: Detail, Wayne Thiebaud, River Edge (working proof 26), 1997, color drypoint and spitbite aquatint, Crown Point Press, Art © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Next: Nathan Oliveira

"Yes, No, Maybe: The Art of Making
Decisions," lecture by exhibition curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

Julie Mehretu, artist, in conversation with curator Judith Brodie, Diamonstein-Spielvogel lecture (audio)

"An Insider's Perspective," lecture by Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press (audio)

Exhibition tour by curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

Tomma Abts in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Crown Point Press prints in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Press release