Souvenir d'Eté

 

George Ball

  1929 - 2010 (biography)

c. 1960  

engraving 

15 1/2 x 9 3/4" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

14 of 40  

pencil titled & editioned, Anchenbach stamp verso 

 

heavy cream wove 

 

 

13617 

$900.00 

A mysteriousness enshrouds the central shape of George Ball's "Souvenir d'Ete," at once figurative and suggestive of a body of water veining through a dark valley. Loosely translating to "summer memory" or "souvenir of summer," Ball doesn't reveal the secret, but allows the viewer to impress upon the engraving what they want. George Ball, painter and printmaker, was born in San Francisco, California on August 10, 1929. He studied art at Stanford in the 1950s. He moved to Paris in 1957 and lived and worked there the rest of his life. In 1958 Ball studied with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 and he taught briefly at the workshop. With Hayter’s support, Ball began showing internationally. This organic abstract print was done at Atelier 17 in 1960 and is completely done with engraving, the dark areas being a series of engraved lines. Ball had arrived on the Parisian art scene at the time when lyrical abstraction, informal art, dripping, materialism flourished. He explored these paths for a few years by combining these different techniques. Later his art evolved again, from abstraction to a return to figuration. From 1961, he exhibited large oils: landscapes, portraits, fountains, urban landscapes, along with engravings, alongside Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, and Anita de Caro. After that many galleries and traveling exhibitions hosted his works. He was part of the USA New Painting group which was under the patronage of the US Embassy which represented American art in France. All the artists of this group exhibited regularly on both sides of the Atlantic. Along with Hayter and Atelier 17, he participated in numerous international exhibitions.