LUCIE BENNETT
Racing Green, 2013
79(w) x 108(h) cm
Screenprint with varnishes on Somerset 410 gsm paper
Image size: 90.5 x 63.5 cm
Edition of 15
PRICE (INCL. VAT)
£1500.00
Today sees the launch of our four brand new large-scale screenprints by Lucie Bennett. Eyestorm has been showing Lucie Bennett’s work for over 10 years now and not only is she one of our best-selling artists but also a friend, so it’s a pleasure to be talking about these new works today.
As with most of Lucie’s work, colour plays a major part in these four new screenprints, which see a pair of images made in both an edition of 70 and an edition of 15 presented in differing colour ways. Our first publications with her since the 2005 series that included sell-out editions such as Pink Knickers and Rose-coloured Shoes - which now sell on the secondary market for over five times their original value - after the images had been decided from the many sketches she’d made, the palette for these works became Lucie’s primary focus.
Her starting point for the first two prints - Ring-a-Zing-Zing and Electric Dreams - was that she wanted to use bright and vibrant, almost neon, colours; she liked the idea of a 1980s aesthetic (those of you old enough will get the ‘Electric Dreams’ association!) and for the line of the image to really ‘zing’ off the paper, perhaps her inspiration for ‘Ring a-Zing-Zing’. So Lucie and I spent some time at Jealous, the Shoreditch-based printmaking studio we now use on a regular basis, going through pantone books and paint samples holding various different shades and hues against each other until we found Lucie’s desired effect. She originally chose a yellow as an alternative to the orange in Ring-a-Zing-Zing, but once the proofs were printed - by the brilliant Jealous printmaker Will - the unanimous decision was that orange worked better, and what a fantastic colour, complimenting the turquoise of Electric Dreams perfectly. Lucie described these shades, with their flat matt finish, as ‘pinging’ out from the cool grey background, which was the effect she was after.
With the more exclusive editions of 15 - Racing Green and Damson Fling, the ‘older cousins’ if you like of the other two - Lucie wanted the colours to have a more ‘sensuous’ feel in contrast to the ‘zestiness’ of Ring-a-Zing-Zing and Electric Dreams. So we played with jewel tones of deep purples and greens to give a more luxurious feel, which has been added to by three layers of varnish over the line in these pieces. For the background, Will suggested we mixed the slightly warmer grey Lucie had chosen with a pearlescent ink to give that extra lustre. Speaking about the prints after proofing stage, Lucie said that she was “thrilled with the result: each pair really stands on its own, giving off its own very different effect; one sensuous, silky and distinguished, the other fresh, playful and zingy.”
In terms of the images themselves, each pair work well in juxtaposition; the coy, cute, more subtly seductive pose of Electric Dreams and Racing Green contrasting to the more assertive and direct stance of Ring-a-Zing-Zing and Damson Fling. Continuing to explore the female form and sexuality as she has in previous works, here Lucie presents two quite different, yet both very appealing aspects of femininity.
Aside from colour and form, Lucie has also experimented with titles in these new pieces by giving each of them a lyrical and slightly obscure name. In addition to this, in order to connect each print that shares the same image, she opted to associate them by rhyme. The result: Electric Dreams and Racing Green vs Ring-a-Zing-Zing an Damson Fling. Flirtatious and energetic, I love the way the titles add that extra special something, becoming part of the work and impossible to ignore.
Ring-a-Zing-Zing , Electric Dreams, Racing Green and Damson Fling, are exclusively available through Eyestorm from today, where they are also on show at the Multiplied Art Fair at Christies.
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