#5

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Harold Cohen

1967

Silkscreen
each signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 70,
sheet: 27"x27"

Portfolio

Description

The “Derrynan” suite of seven screenprints was created in 1967, the year before Harold Cohen was introduced to programming during his visiting professorship at the University of California in San Diego. The works therefore represent some of the last examples of the artist’s pre-AARON production.

The title of the suite may refer to Derrynane Beach in County Kerry, Ireland. Each of the square images features a photograph of a patch of pebbled or sandy ground overlaid with a pattern of colored circles. The toning of the photograph as well as the color and pattern of the circles is different in each image. They are all printed in color on wove paper.

While screenprinting is a manual process, we can note certain parallels here with Cohen’s later work with computer algorithms and plotters. In both cases, he employed machines in the production of a serial image output with variations within a fixed set of parameters.