Bare Shouldered Beauty 1967

Suellen Rocca made this intaglio print, awash in shades of blue, by etching lines into a metal plate. I imagine Rocca hunched over the plate, thoughtfully incising these repeated figures. There are so many of them! She's like a cartographer of the everyday, mapping out the shapes of hats, shoes, mugs, and statuettes. The bare-shouldered beauty herself seems to emerge from this sea of images, holding some kind of listening device to her ear. Is she tuning in, or tuning out? There's a sense of play here, a delight in pattern and repetition, that reminds me of other pop artists who elevate the stuff of daily life. I think of Corita Kent screen-printing soup cans and bread loaves. Ultimately, artists build on each other’s work, and this creates a dialogue across time and place.