SWEET Suite Louisiana: Intaglio Prints by Warrington Colescott May 11, 2010

Warrington Colescott's prints are riddled with complexities and contradictions, stinging satirical barbs and playful jokes, and exuberant color and subtle tonal variations of black and white. At age eighty-nine, Colescott is one of the elder statesmen of American printmaking and, perhaps, the reigning dean of color intaglio. At the heart of Colescott's enterprise is a deep love of satire, farce, and the burlesque. Viewed in retrospect, his artistic career has unfolded as a hectic, surprising cabaret, teeming with a cast of standard characters -- fat-cat businessmen and their mistresses, bureaucrats, politicians, rubes, and knaves and unexpected visitors to the scene, whether they be Benjamin Franklin, Sigmund Freud, or Dick Cheney. One can almost hear the music as these actors play their parts, complete with pratfalls, scandal, and a heaping dose of good-natured satire. In 'Suite Louisiana,' Colescott has explored his Creole heritage and created a series of eleven masterful intaglio prints, on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art.