Clown Forming
Krishna Reddy left Paris in 1976 to take a position as professor and director of the Department of Graphics and Printmaking at New York University. He became increasingly interested in depicting the human figure after making the 1968 print and sculpture Demonstrators. After visiting the circus with his daughter Apu in 1978, he began to focus on clowns and related subjects, a motif that would engage him for more than two decades. Clown Forming shows an abstracted image of a performer contained by a scaffoldlike structure. A decorative pattern of concentric ovals represents the ring, while audience members, as if seen from above, witness the clown suspended in space, defying gravity.
Artwork Details
- Title: Clown Forming
- Artist: Krishna Reddy (American, born India 1925–2018 New York)
- Date: 1981
- Medium: Mixed color intaglio
- Dimensions: Plate: 15 1/2 × 19 3/8 in. (39.4 × 49.2 cm)
Sheet: 19 13/16 × 25 7/8 in. (50.3 × 65.7 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Judith Reddy, 2014
- Object Number: 2014.131.4
- Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Krishna Reddy
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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