1990

Cold Mountain Series, Zen Study 5 (Early State)

Brice Marden

American, born 1938

Inspired by the nature poetry of the eighth-century Buddhist poet Han Shan (also called Cold Mountain), Marden made a cycle of paintings, drawings, and etchings that merge elements of Chinese calligraphy with the drip and splatter approach of Abstract Expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock.

To make his Cold Mountain etchings, Marden employed a technique called sugar-lift. Working like a Chinese calligrapher from top to bottom and across the surface of the plate, Marden used sticks to brush a sugar-based solution over an aquatint ground. Then, a layer of varnish was applied over the entire plate before it was immersed in warm water to dissolve the sugar, which lifted away from the plate, taking varnish with it and exposing the metal beneath wherever the sugar solution was painted. When bathed in acid, the exposed areas were etched into the plate, and when inked and printed, resemble Marden’s gestural brushstrokes.