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Nathan Oliveira

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Nathan Oliveira at work at Crown Point
Press, photograph by Kathan Brown,
Courtesy Crown Point Press

In Oliveira's final print, the torso — supported from below — resembles an early Greek or Roman statue. But in the working proof, the torso is suspended from a common hanger that the artist drew onto the paper with a pen. Hanging, the form reads less like a substantial marble and more like a dancer’s gauzy leotard. Oliveira ultimately decided against adding the hanger — if, indeed, he ever seriously considered it — shifting the tone of the work from highly whimsical to highbrow.

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

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