5eme Arrondissement

Intaglio printed in black ink on wove paper, 1963.
Stated edition of 25.
Signed, titled, dated “12/63”, numbered and annotated “Paris” in pencil.

Maybe by the time the Holidays were coming around, and Gil Cowley had spent half a year in Paris, the 5th had become home. Atelier 17, where Cowley worked day-in-day-out, was near Montparnasse, in the 14th arrondissement. Cowley also depicted the Parc de Montsouris, in the 13th.  Seemingly, that piece of the proverbial Parisian pie on the left bank became his stomping grounds. While abstraction dominates his prints, lines of demarkation, shading, and color, seem to have been inspired by the city, since he would sometimes refer to Paris in his prints of that time.  This is a strongly contrasted and textured composition.