Artist: Brice Marden

Gagosian presents Etched Letters, an exhibition of editioned prints, unpublished proofs, and related drawings produced by Brice Marden between 2007 and 2012, on view at the Burlington Arcade gallery. Curated by the Estate of Brice Marden, this is the first gallery display of Marden’s prints in London, and reflects the artist’s dedication to printmaking, which began in the 1960s and continued throughout his career.

While his 2006–07 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, was traveling, Marden embarked on an international trip of his own. At the National Palace Museum in Taipei, he encountered “Seven-character Poem (Besotted by Flower Vapors)” (1087), a Song dynasty verse by Huang T’ing-chien (1045–1105). This example of Chinese calligraphy, which was mounted to an album page with blank borders on both vertical edges, inspired Marden to make the first drawings in what became the Letter paintings and works on paper.

Beginning in 2007, Marden worked with master printmaker Jennifer Melby to produce a set of etchings derived from the Letters of Gratitude drawings—works that had been made as tokens of appreciation for help received during the lead up to the MoMA retrospective. While the sheets were still in development, they were photographed, and printmaker Lothar Osterburg translated these images onto copper plates using photogravure, a process that replicated Marden’s original marks with a new tonal and textural character.

Marden then elaborated on the plates with his own hand-rendered aquatint additions, with Melby running off test proofs as they moved through different states. Three plates were completed to full editions: #1, which was printed in 2011 as First Etched Letter; #3 (2007–12), which was derived from Letter of Gratitude #1; and #8 (2007–12), which began life as Letter of Gratitude #17.

In the prints, as well as the drawings from which they were developed, each page is filled with letter-like marks that suggest a formal visual language as a guide to Marden’s compositional and psychological space. The artist’s use of ink-dipped sticks as drawing instruments lends the work an unpredictability and, along with its calligraphic influence, it is embedded with a clear interest in classical geometry.

With the Estate of Brice Marden, Gagosian is developing a book to update the catalogue published by Tate in 1991. The new volume includes prints made from that date onward and features an essay by Jeremy Lewison, curator of the Tate exhibition.

Above: Brice Marden, #3, 2007–12. Etching with aquatint on Somerset textured paper 21 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches (54.6 x 56.5 cm). Edition of 45 + 15 AP © 2025 Estate of Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy the Estate of Brice Marden and Gagosian