'Elizabeth's Cone', Aquatint Etching with the plate (image itself) 15 x 22 inches. On a larger sheet of archival paper. An iconic still life image featuring the “tragedy” of a dropped ice cream cone. The artist came to see dropped cones as fleeting promises of joy. Whether devoured or dropped, their existence is short lived. Beside the alluring visual attributes, dropped cones represent a metaphor for the temporal nature of life, itself. And was an important sub-series of James Torlakson's theme park imagery in the mid 1980's.
Original edition of 10. There are only a couple of prints still available. Each in excellent condition. The Aquatint Etching is from internationally acclaimed American Realist, whose work depicts majesty in the mundane. Torlakson’s everyday “Americana” scenes include suburban landscapes, traveling carnivals, standing fireworks booths, abandoned drive-in theaters, and autobiographical still life scenes from his Bay Area neighborhood memories and travels. Torlakson is a contemporary artist, proficiently working in oil, watercolor and intaglio etching, and employing European master techniques to create compelling works that pull the viewer in, such as the solo light from his neighborhood street at dusk.
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, CA
Oakland Museum of California; Oakland, CA
Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; San Francisco, CA
Brooklyn Museum; Brooklyn, NY
Albright Knox Art Gallery; Buffalo, NY
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute; Pittsburgh, PA
Mueum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; Providence, RI
New York Public Library, Print Collection; New York, NY
Chicago Art Institute; Chicago, IL
Library of Congress; Washington, D.C.
Delaware Art Museum; Wilmington, DE
Denver Art Museum; Denver, CO
Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Santa Barbara, CA
Detroit Art Institute; Detroit, MI
Stanford University Museum of Art; Stanford, CA
University Art Museum, Rutgers University; New Jersey, NJ
De Cordova Museum; Lincoln, MA
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
Boise Art Museum; Boise, ID
University Art Museum; U.C. Berkeley; Berkeley, CA
Arkansas Art Center; Little Rock, Arkansas
Hearst Art Gallery; Saint Mary’s College; Moraga, CA
