Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Suzhou II
Suzhou II

Suzhou II

Primary (Bronxville, New York, 1938–Tivoli, New York, 2023)
NationalityAmerican, North America
Date1996-1998
MediumFour color etchings with aquatint, drypoint, and scraping
DimensionsSheet: 25 3/4 × 18 3/4 in. (65.4 × 47.6 cm)
Image: 14 3/4 × 8 3/4 in. (37.5 × 22.2 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Bequest of John A. Robertson and gift of Carlota S. Smith in honor of Professor Richard Shiff, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art, The University of Texas at Austin, 2017.192.2
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2017.192.2
On View
Not on view
Label Text

Brice Marden is an artist who makes art “as a sounding board for the spirit.” His distinctive artistic style draws on the formal constraints of Minimalism, the emotive power of Abstract Expressionism, and the emphasis on gesture and nature found in his studies of Chinese art across media. Particularly notable are Marden’s interests in Chinese calligraphy and scholars’ rocks: organic sculptures prized by millennia of Chinese literati for their ability to represent a microcosm of the universe, a painting crafted from nature’s own power. 

 

In Suzhou I–IV, Marden combines various printmaking techniques as he layers one faceted, undulating line over the next. Together, the four prints act as a kind of study of organic shapes from different viewpoints. Just as scholars’ rocks invite us to contemplate space and time, Marden’s prints allow for meditation on the universe through the microcosm of art.   

Exhibitions