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Drypoint print on white Crisbrook Waterleaf paper. Signed by the artist, numbered 7/10, and dated 1972 lower center in pencil. Edition 10: this impression 7/10.
Drawn by the artist and printed at the same time as Jim Dine’s “Thirty Bones of My Body” portfolio.
The fibers of a paint brush point downward, its handle extending stiffly upward. The bristles swoop gracefully to the right, their curve met by wispy strands of hair which cradle the brush and grow in follicles from the handle.
The hand tool is undoubtedly Jim Dine’s most iconic motif. Meticulously catalogued in rows like scientific specimens or sketched individually, hammers, awls, brushes, saws and screwdrivers assume a visceral symbolism. Curvilinear handles evoke the contours of limbs or bones, and even metal points and blades seem organic under Dine’s thoughtful hand. In this series of dry point prints, each tool is positioned vertically. Standing in for the artist’s body, the phallic shapes are gently shaded, appearing pressed into the soft grey background. Wisps of hair creep up and around each tool, as if the instruments themselves were sprouting from the body. Dine’s deft draftsmanship tempers the grotesque possibilities of this inanimate hirsutism, while the delicate, soft quality of dry point lines enhances the intimate nature of these portraits.
