"Siren"


1947
(10.5” h x 8” w)
Linocut printed over a monoprint background.


NOTE:  As with the linoleum block [Nude 1947], this print seems to be from a period of experimentation.  Its method is different from the majority of elimination linocuts from the late 1940s.  As Cox writes in the artistic chronology in STUDIO BOOK:  ‘1946.  On resuming block-printing [after a 6 year hiatus during WWII] I was ready for further experiment ... [explanation of attempts to print from natural objects] ... The drawback seemed to be that the blacks and whites should be capable of reversal, and I set out to remedy what was to prove a considerable problem.’  ‘Siren’ could be such an attempt; unlike an elimination linocut, where the lightest colour is printed first, with darker and darker colours printed in layers on top, this print has a dark, matte monoprinted background, with lighter coloured, shiny ink on top, which leaves darker areas exposed, in effect giving the reverse of dark and light that Cox was attempting to achieve.
private collection