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Untitled (The Kiss)
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Untitled (The Kiss) Dated 1972
  • Scottish Art
Bellany made a series of prints on the theme of the kiss. Here, the sexual content is explicit with the two figures apparently in bed, mouths wide open with their tongues merging into one. The spotted headscarf of the figure on the right suggests that the man is Bellany (as he appears in two self-portraits wearing the scarf). The image directly relates to Bellany’s Calvinist upbringing and notions of sex and guilt. Bellany only began to experiment with etching when he started teaching at Winchester College of Art. This is one of the first of a series of etchings he made in 1970. The spontaneous and lively line of the etching highlights how accomplished a draughtsman Bellany was.

Glossary Open

Etching

A form of printmaking in which a metal plate is covered with a substance called a 'ground', usually wax, into which an image is drawn with a needle. Acid is applied, eroding the areas of the plate exposed but not the areas covered by wax. The action of the acid creates lines in the metal plate that hold the ink from which a print is made when the plate is pressed against paper under pressure.

Etching

Details

  • Acc. No. GMA 2996
  • Medium Etching on paper (10/30)
  • Size 29.10 x 29.00 cm (paper 65.00 x 50.00 cm)
  • Credit Purchased 1986

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Scottish Art