Prints

Top : Prints

Breaking Through
Alex Topchevsky (1911 - 1999)
etching on paper, 1941

Alex Topchevsky was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied art at Hull House and at the Art Institute. He also earned a degree in education from Loyola University. He worked for the Illinois WPA easel program, where he also produced murals. Topchevsky's work is in the collections of museums such as the Smithsonian, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute, and the Library of Congress.

To make an etching, the artist draws his design through a wax coating on a metal plate. The plate is dipped into acid, which eats away the exposed areas of metal. The plate is inked; the ink settles in the etched out lines of the plate. The plate is printed under pressure so the ink gets squeezed onto the paper. Topchevsky used a loose drawing style to create the images of the workmen in this image.

Collection of the Illinois State Museum
photograph by Gary Andrashko
ISM Accession #: 1983.61.394

Top : Prints

First | Previous | Next | Last