Dimensions: image: 410 x 305 mm
Copyright: © Tate | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: The stark contrast in this print immediately grabs me. The figures almost seem to emerge from the darkness, don't they? Curator: Indeed. What we're looking at is "The Offering" by Cecil Collins, currently residing in the Tate Collections. It presents us with a fascinating interplay of light and shadow. Editor: The texture too – you can almost feel the roughness of the material used to make this print. How do you think that materiality affects the overall reading? Curator: It adds a certain gravitas, wouldn't you agree? The simple binary of black and white emphasizes the ritualistic nature of the offering itself, drawing attention to its symbolic weight. Editor: Right, the way the artist uses high contrast creates a tension between the earthly and the celestial. A compelling reminder of the artist’s creative process. Curator: A process, which, ultimately, brings us to the core of the image. It shows us how the artist builds up from raw material to explore universal themes of giving and receiving.
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tate about 2 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/collins-the-offering-p11848
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tate about 2 months ago
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This striking lithograph shows a woman, possibly naked, holding an object which she is offering as a gesture of worship or generosity. She is held in the hand of a giant figure, and it is unclear whether it might be she herself who is the ‘offering’. The stars that surround her perhaps suggest a spiritual context of some kind. Despite the ambiguous subject matter, Collins’s use of lithography adds to the intensity of the image. Morphet commented that ‘The improvisatory potential of lithography was specially suitable to Collins at a moment when he wished simultaneously to unwind, to experiment, and to explore new directions’ (Morphet, p.19).
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