1970 / Etching and aquatint / 50.17 x 33.02 cm / Artist: Manuel Rodriguez Sr / Private collection

Rodriguez’s most admired works are his multicolored representations of pastoral life and rustic celebrations. In Entourage, much of the whimsicality of his colored works can still be traced in the stylized figuration and the decorative motifs. But this time, the theme of celebration is expressed in a black-and-white alternation of positive and negative spaces and a splurge of textures. The test of a true printmaker’s skill, particularly in intaglio, is in the great variety of tones and textures rendered in a one-color plate. The widest range of nuances from deep black to middle tone gray, light gray, and white is explored in this restrained composition. This excellent etching bridges the disjunction between the artist’s concern with lyrical, traditional subjects and his predilection for experimental, innovative media.