In Oliveira's final print, the torso — supported from below — resembles an early Greek or Roman statue. But in the working proof, the torso is suspended from a common hanger that the artist drew onto the paper with a pen. Hanging, the form reads less like a substantial marble and more like a dancer’s gauzy leotard. Oliveira ultimately decided against adding the hanger — if, indeed, he ever seriously considered it — shifting the tone of the work from highly whimsical to highbrow.
Nathan Oliveira
Nathan Oliveira at work at Crown Point
Press, photograph by Kathan Brown,
Courtesy Crown Point Press
Banner Image: Detail, Wayne Thiebaud, River Edge (working proof 26), 1997, color drypoint and spitbite aquatint, Crown Point Press, Art © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

