Patrick Caulfield (1936 - 2005)
Title: Cafe Sign (s.9818)
Medium: Original Screenprint, 1968, signed and numbered in pencil, lower right “Patrick Caulfield”, Publishers stamp verso
Size: 71 x 93.2 cms (Paper and image) ; Framed 106 x 77 cms
Literature: Alan Christea: Patrick Caulfield: The complete Prints (Catalogue Raisonne) - Number 12
Note: This was part of a series of five screen prints which were the total of the artists graphic production for 1968. These included: Crucifix (Christea 8), Bathroom Mirror (Christea 9), Found Objects (Christea 10), Loudspeaker (Christea 11, Cafe Sign (Christea 12).
In his hard-edged, colour-blocked prints and paintings of innocuous interior scenes and domestic objects such as pots, Patrick Caulfield created a sense of the exotic from the ordinary. Caulfield emerged in the 1960s amid the rise of British pop artists. Early in the decade, he became interested in the flattened, authorless quality of commercial sign painting, which he adopted in his own work by eliminating any traces of brushwork. This interest in flat, anonymous imagery inspired the screen-printing practice that he pursued alongside his paintings. In both bodies of work, he employed the unnatural colours and sharp black lines characteristic of advertising to cast a curious eye on the inventions of the modern world. Caulfield was influenced by Juan Gris and Fernand Léger, and exerted an influence on later British artists such as Gary Hume and Julian Opie.
Edition: 3/75
Printed by: Kelpra Studios, London
Published by: Leslie Waddington Prints London
Public Collections: Tate Gallery, London - Presented by Rose and Chris Prater through the Institute of Contemporary Prints 1971, The Arts Council Collection, The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Brooklyn Museum, USA, Gift of Richard Anuszkiewicz, MOMA, New York
