1996

Kiss

Swiss, born 1948

Often tending toward abstraction yet always rooted in nature, Not Vital's art frequently refers to his Swiss ancestry or aspects of his childhood in a remote Alpine village. Kiss is made from a plate etched with the imprint of two dead lambs, their bodies recalling the routine killing of animals in Vital's youth and the broad arcs of their forms alluding to Switzerland's mountainous terrain. The lambs' extended bodies form a sooty sweep that also evokes the mist-shrouded mountain peaks in classical Chinese painting; Vital emphasizes this kinship by signing his name in Chinese characters.