- titled: "Easy Rider" (lower left, in black pencil)
- signed: lower right, in black pencil; numbered lower
left, in black pencil
- medium: lithograph in five colors, printed by Bruce
Porter at Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque; Tamarind chop lower left; printer's chop lower
right
- dimensions: bleed image - sheet and image size: 29 x 22"
(73.7 x 55.9 cm.)
- edition: 18 prints, 1 artist's proof, 1 bon a tirer, 1
color trial proof, 2 Tamarind impressions, 5 Roman numbered proofs
(on white Arches paper); unless noted, on calendered Rives B.F.K.
paper
- date published: 1972
- edition number: Tamarind 72-191a
Personal Reflections, by Arthur Secunda
Of my over 350 different graphic editions, Easy Rider is
easily one of my three or four all-time favorites in terms of its
inspiration and coming together of form and content.
I did it at a time in my life (Oh those, wonderful 60s) when I
was somewhat connected to actor Dennis Hopper, whose monumental
photo-assemblages I admired: as well as sculptors Charley Frazier,
Ed Kienholz, Gordon Wagner and Clare Falkenstein. Dennis' movie had
just appeared and, at the time, Rider seemed like a breaking
out of rigid convention into anarchistic personal freedom and
happiness. In any case, the humor I feel it conveys, even now, is
authentic. And the technical details in the drips and washes of the
tusche pulled from the stone represents a remarkable feat of
printing which, at the time, very few ateliers besides Tamarind
were capable of mastering.
Personally, I was (and am) far from the motorcycle mentality,
though former artist friends such as John Gallagher spoke of its
hedonistic pleasures to me so that I can see the possibilties of
adrenalin abandon. Nevertheless, the humorous limp animated
movement combined with the noble, coloration and determination of
the rider, make this imaginative print accessible on a literal
anecdotal level as well as being of interest to a more serious
technical and esthetic sensibility.
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