Problematical Tripdickery

In Gladys Nilsson’s saucily-titled triptych, all of the lines are multi-informational—some straight lines are sightlines, others spatial construction lines; some lines indicate the limits of flash light/spotlight illumination, and even tightropes upon which figures hang, lie or walk; curvy lines outline male and female bodies. Their characteristically cartoonish rubbery anatomies—showing off Nilsson’s control of line and her signature scale shifts are both present here. (See also Smart Museum 1995.56 and 1995.58b.) Nilsson exploits etching’s possibilities for dark to light modulations, including subtle plate tone, to describe the spatial relations and interactions between the figures in this tiny world in which the subject matter is the objectification of women’s bodies in spectacle society.
Nilsson, and other Chicago Imagist artists who studied intaglio printmaking at the School of the Art Institute, learned from master etcher Vera Berdich (1915‒2003), who taught there from 1947 until 1979. (See 2001.575.) Her earliest etching and drypoint group dates from 1963‒64, and she returns to intaglio intermittently. (See 1995.58a-j.) Nilsson gave this print to the Smart Museum in honor of her colleague and fellow Chicago Imagist Christina Ramberg (1946‒1995), who also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and who focused on similar subject matter (see 2001.662).