Albatross
Edward Landon (1911-1984), Albatross, serigraph, c. 1955, signed in pencil lower right, titled and numbered lower left. Reference: Ryan 6, from the edition of 25. In adequate condition, with creases in the margins and one tear in the margin left (not reaching image), the matrix flawless, no evidence of lightstain or prior hinging. The full sheet, 18 x 14 3/4, the sheet 21 x 17 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression.
Landon was of course a pioneer in the creation of abstract imagery using the medium of the serigraph. This image is reminiscent of the Viking shapes Landon was taken with in the ’50’s and thereafter, and also has some resemblance to the sea and ship imagery that was a lifelong fascination for him. Indeed, a legendary Swedish four masted schooner (Landon was of Swedish ancestry) named the Albatross was built in 1942, and had circled the globe doing oceanographic research in the late ’40’s; in a collision in 1949 her original masthead – an albatross – was lost, but the ship sailed for some years thereafter. It seems quite certain that Landon’s imagery refers to this ship.