Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, 1924–2005, BritishPublished by Editions Alecto Ltd.
Title:
The Spirit of the Snake
Date:
1965
Materials & Techniques:
Screen print on H.P. J. Green 133 lbs. white wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 38 × 26 inches (96.5 × 66 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower right: "36/65" Image includes the words: 'Only remember that the spirit of the snake, of the lion, is your spirit. | For it is only from yourself that you are aquainted with spirit at all. | Now of course that question is why have I given a snake just this spirit. | And the answer can only lie in the psycho-physical parallelism: If I were to look like the snake and to do what it does than I should be such and such. | The same with the elephant, the fly, the wasp. But the question arises even here, my body is not on the same level as that of the wasp and of the snake (and surely it is so), so that I have neither inferred from that of the wasp to mine nor from mine to that of the wasp. Bendeke nur, das der Geist der Schlange, des Lowen, dein Geist ist. | Denn nur von dir her kennst du uberhaupt den Geist. | Es ist nun freiltch die Frage, warum habe ich der Schlange gerade diesen Geist gegeben. | Und die Antwort hierauf kann nur im psychophysichen Parallelis mus hegen: Wenn ich so assuhe wie dei Schlange und das tate, was se tut, so ware ich so und so. | Das Gleiche beim Elephanten, bei de Fliege, bei de Wespe. | Es fragt sich aber, ob nicht eben auch hier weider (und gewis ist es so) mein Korper mit dem der Wespe un der Schlange auf einer Stufe steht, so das ich weder von dem der Wespe auf meinen, noch auch den der Wespe geschlossen habe.
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Under Copyright
Accession Number:
B1995.3.12
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Just what was it that made British Pop so different, so appealing? (Yale Center for British Art, 2004-01-26 - 2004-05-09)