detail of train car; brown/ grey with bright green highlights; detail with ladder on L edge and gear in center

%C2%A9 Robert Cottingham

Rolling Stock, For Armyn, 1992

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Robert Cottingham’s “Rolling Stock” series of color aquatints are studies of the ordinary. Each of the prints is compositionally similar, showing an arrangement of mechanical parts—ladders, hand brake wheels, air hoses, and couplings—found on the ends of railroad boxcars. Rendered in highly detailed and closely observed representations, the images mimic the visual effects of photography. Though sharing similar subject matter, the prints vary in size, format, and color scheme. Cottingham devised unusual color schemes for the prints as a way to accentuate the aesthetic and expressive qualities of his subjects. The prints possess a precise and compelling visual harmony, both individually and across the series as a whole. Though the subjects of the prints are familiar to most, the meticulous details and photographic-like depictions invite close inspection.

Details
Title
Rolling Stock, For Armyn
Artist Life
born 1935
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2014.144.6
Provenance
(Parasol Press, New York; sold to Palmer); Brian and Julia Morrison Palmer, Orono, Minn. (until 2014); given to MIA
Curator Approved

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detail of train car; brown/ grey with bright green highlights; detail with ladder on L edge and gear in center

© Robert Cottingham

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