Plate VIII

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
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Harold Cohen

1968

Portfolio

Description

Published in 1968, Harold Cohen’s portfolio The Homecoming is one of the artist’s final projects completed prior to his introduction to programming, while he was working as an artist and designer in the UK.

A suite of nine color lithographs, the portfolio was created to illustrate an edition of Harold Pinter’s play The Homecoming (first published in 1965). Cohen designed the book in collaboration with Robert Simon of the London-based Curwen Press. A limited edition of 200 copies was published by Karnac Books.

Seven of the nine plates are printed on individual sheets; the last two are double-page spreads. The images consist of photographic close-ups of a woman’s face and hands, with the colors altered in a manner reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s Pop art silkscreens.

In both style and technique, The Homecoming has little in common with Cohen’s later work with the computer program AARON. The collaborative nature of the project does hint, however, at the future direction of his practice.