American

Kenneth Davies

U.S. b. 1925
The Andrea Da Messino Portrait OP 34

---

In this lithograph, Kenneth Southworth Davies created a trompe-l'oeil (fool the eye) assemblage of objects, which are "nailed" to a boarded wall. They include a photograph of General Custer, various scraps of paper, one of which has Davies' name and the date "printed" on it, a portrait of a young Italian Renaissance man, a letter from Alice B. Toklas postmarked New Bedford, Massachusetts (the artist's home), upon which can be seen the words, "a rose by any other name," images of Sitting Bull and another Native American chief, and a rose. The portrait of a young man is based upon two well-known works by fifteenth-century Sicilian artist, Antonello da Messina. Antonella was known for "attaching" a trompe-l'oeil scrap of paper (a cartellino) at the bottom of his portraits upon which he "wrote" his name and the date.

 

BACK TO COLLECTION