Jim Dine

A painted Self Portrait (top)

1970

152.4 x 101.6 cm Hodkinson mould made paper

The second edition of seven variations of the coloured bathrobe

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Jim Dine did a lot of work based on the one above over the seven years that the book covers, I believe a painted self-portrait to be the second of seven. He experimented with a variety of techniques – lithograph, etching, woodcut, but the first was a stencil piece in 1970.

The black and white self-portrait using a stencil, which were cut by the printer (Maurice Payne) from the outline drawing that Dine had done on a large piece of Masonite, and the Masonite “puzzle” was then placed on a large piece of paper and spray painted as each piece was lifted one at a time. But I prefer this piece above, a painted self-portrait, was drawn and painted by Dine. This piece reminded me of my own work, I’m currently working with blocks of colours, distinctively separating the tones of the subject to show the audience more clearly what I see in the objects.  

Wall Chart II (bottom)

1974

Lithographs from 4 stones and 4 zinc plates

Printed in 36 colours on a sheet of 121.9 x 88.9cm Rives paper

Edition record: 75

I also liked his ‘Wall Chart II’ lithographs from 1974, they have a quality of looking simple and complex at the same time. The technique itself requires concentration, Dine has written one word on each square, which are sometimes obscured depending on the amount of printing ink applied. The squares are laid out in a grid format. It’s so easy to look at it and just see a cheque design with scribbles on them, but it’s so much more than that – it’s a documentation of a process. It has reputation as well as uniqueness, each square has a different amount of ink on it so each has its own lines and occasional light colour.  

Images and information from: JIM DINE PRINTS 1970-77, Harper and Row Publishers in 1977, 1^st edition, Pages 48 & 49, 92 & 93.