Easter Eggs
notes: label: Description
content: "Easter Eggs" is an electron color print by Caroline Durieux (1896-1989). A professor of fine arts at Louisiana State University, Durieux developed the process of electron printmaking along with her colleague, professor of botany Dr. Harry E. Wheeler, and his wife, Naomi Wheeler in the early 1950s. An electron print is made by making a radioactive drawing with ink containing radioactive isotopes and exposing it to a sheet of sensitized paper. The drawing appears once the paper has been developed. Durieux then incorporated the use of color into electron printmaking with the help of two chemists. Adding color to a print complicates the process slightly.
label: Description
content: Printed from a very small edition of only five, "Easter Eggs" is somewhat abstract. Thick crosshatching in dark tones of black, olive green and gray dominates the print. Egg-like shapes, emphasized by small areas of white highlighting, appear behind the crosshatching. Much smaller pink and orange egg-like shapes are scattered across the composition. The sensitized paper gives the print a slight sheen.
label: Description
content: Durieux is better known for her satirical lithographs of Louisiana social events and everyday life in the 1930s and '40s. However, she developed a more abstract style when she began experimenting with different processes, like electron printmaking and the cliché verre process, in the '50s and '60s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Easter
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Communications
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content: Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.20576
label: catalog number
content: 20576
label: accession number
content: 224481
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Print
label: Other Terms
content: Print; Graphics; Electron Print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 cm x 16 cm; 5 1/8 in x 6 5/16 in