Title

Wild duck [by Murray Griffin].

Author

Bunbury, Alisa.

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

1989

Type

About the work

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Wild duck.

This print is the most complex of the 1932 prints in both use of colour and working of the blocks. Griffin has experimented with methods of overlapping colours, applying hatched lines over solid blocks of colour, as well as solid colours over toned areas, as on the bellies. The white of the paper has also been incorporated as a defining element. The background is a combination of simple suggestion, with the wavy line, and stylised reeds. A tension is created within the work by the barely noticeable cropping of the left hand bird, with wings raised in warning. This is the earliest colour print in which a monogram was incorporated. Although based on the Blue-billed duck, Griffin has enlarged the bill, and has chosen not to present the said bright blue bill of the breeding males.

© Alisa Bunbury, 1998.

Last Updated

27 Oct 2023