Wah Kee Spareribs

Print

Lithograph from an aluminum plate on Suzuki paper

55 1/2 x 35 1/4 inches image 60 x 40 1/2 inches framed

1971

Wah Kee Spare Ribs was printed in two versions, within an edition of fifty-seven. The first forty-six prints were pulled on Suzuki paper measuring 57 x 37 inches, and the remaining eleven were done on Copperplate de Luxe paper measuring 42 x 31 inches (fig. 4). In the upper right, an oval similar to the ones found in Weekend at Mr. and Mrs. Krisher and Japanese Village is fringed with lines extending outward - a motif de Kooning had employed as early as 1948, in such works as Study for ”Stenographer” (plate 47). De Kooning utilized the entire plate surface for Wah Kee Spare Ribs (1970; plate 147), the largest of all his lithographs. The title of this work was inspired by the name of a restaurant where de Kooning often ate with Genis while working at Hollander’s East Village workshop.(10) It resembles a pile of sun-bleached bones, seemingly cast in dark shadows at the top, where the composition is the densest, and delineated at the bottom by faint contours. According to Genis, this unusual progression from bold, black strokes to atypical, delicate outlines resulted from de Kooning’s use of large brushes, which released too muc tusche onto the plate. When Genis pointed out to de Kooning that the excess tusche had produced a very black drawing with little tonal variation, the artist first advised him to discard the plate, but then agreed to let Genis tru to correct it by washing off the tusche. The opaque areas in the final print indicate where the tusche had already dried, while the open passages indicate where it had dried only around the edges of the brushstroke, leaving linear borders. After Genis gummed and printed the plate, ”de Kooning loved the way (it) opened up,” so together they decided to proof and edition it.(11) - Excerpts from De Kooning: A Retrospective, By Willem De Kooning, John Elderfield, Lauren Mahony