Skip to main content

Ah! This life is so everyday

Patrick Caulfield; Frank Kicherer; Advanced Graphics ; Petersburg Press; Waddington Graphics

Artwork Details

Ah! This life is so everyday
1973
Patrick Caulfield; Frank Kicherer; Advanced Graphics ; Petersburg Press; Waddington Graphics
screenprint on paper
16 1/8 in x 14 3/16 in (41 cm x 36 cm);24 in x 22 1/16 in (61 cm x 56 cm)
Gift of Jack A. and Noreen Rounick
2004/2.80.1

Description

Subject Matter:

The first of twentiy-two images, this print is included in a book of poems by the French poet and art critic Jules Laforgue accompanied by screenprints by British Pop artist Patrick Caulfield. Admired by the artist, Laforgue was a nineteenth-century symbolist poet who was one of the inventors of vers libre or "free verse" poetry. This new form of poetic verse relied on the phrase as a unit rather than constraining the poetic verse to set numbers of syllables. Laforgue’s poetry became important for later poets like T.S. Eliot because of its blending of observations of everyday life with poetic associations. In this book, Caulfield used the long-dead poets verses as inspiration for twenty-two scenes, created in colorful screenprint. Of these prints, Caulfield noted that “They are not illustrations but complementary images. There are few visually descriptive lines in Laforgue. The images suggest the things I have imagined the poet seeing when he wrote the poem…”

Physical Description:

This screenprint is in two colors: black and blue. In an abstract blue form, there are three small abstract depictions of birds flying. The rest of the image is solid black, creating an impression of looking out a curtained window. 

Usage Rights:

If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.