Prunella Clough

Catalogue entry

P07909 Float 1950

Lithograph 6 3/4×4 1/2 (170 × 116) from one stone, printed by the artist (not editioned)
Not inscribed
Purchased from the artist (Grant-in-Aid) 1984

These three lithographs [P07906, P07907, P07909]were printed by Clough in her own studio where she had a lithography press set up. She did not make editions but printed five or ten copies of each image. She used stones, sometimes drawing on them directly and sometimes using transfer paper, treating the medium as experimental and exploring textures and tonal effects similar to those she was using in drawings, in which line and tone and rubbed textures like frottages were combined. ‘Geological Landscape’ is a relatively direct landscape image while in ‘Float’ an object like an improvised marker buoy with cork lashed to its post refers indirectly to the same kind of scene: Clough uses landscape as a source of visual ideas brought together from often fragmentary sensory memmories, incorporating natural forms with the weathered detritus of industrial buildings, machinery, streets and derelict urban vistas. In ‘Can and Basket’ she explores the differing shapes and contours of the two objects.

This and the following entries have been approved by the artist.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986

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