Ken Price Kauai Crab Signed Numbered Edition Color Screen Print Contemporary Art

Artist: Ken Price
Title: Kauai Crab
Medium: Color Screen Print on Paper
Size: 24" x 20" unframed
Framed Size: 29 3/4" x 25 3/4" x 1 1/2"
Edition: 15/60
Year: 1972
Inscription: Signed, titled, numbered, and dated on front
Condition: Very good condition
Documentation: Gallery certificate of authenticity along with a full record of provenance available by request

"Kauai Crab" is a signed, numbered edition color screen print by the prominent contemporary American artist, Ken Price. The work features the abstract forms and saturated colors for which Price is famous, and showcases his eclectic combination of influences ranging from surrealism to California surf culture. Price was a critical figure in the mid-century Los Angeles art scene, alongside Ed Ruscha, Craig Kaufman, and Robert Irwin. The vibrant colors and counter-culture attitude of "Kauai Crab" speak to the culture of innovation and optimism that permeated the group during this period.

"Kauai Crab" is from a limited edition of 50 and is hand signed, numbered, dated, and titled on the front. The piece is in very good condition and includes a gallery certificate of authenticity and a complete record of provenance available by request.

About Ken Price
A prominent contemporary American artist, Ken Price is best known for his eclectic works throughout multiple mediums. A master of abstract, large-scale sculpture, Price was also an accomplished painted, print maker. He drew from a variety of influences, including Surrealism, surf culture, eroticism, folk art, and geology. A quintessential contemporary artist, Price was not fond of talking about the deeper meaning of his works and instead wanted the art to speak for itself: "I can't prove my art's any good or that it means what I say it means. And nothing I say can improve the way it looks."

Though he was a pioneer in terms of subject matter and compositional qualities, Price is perhaps most famous for his innovative techniques. Notably, Ken Price would use multiple layers of acrylic paint that he wound sand down (a technique he learned from surf shops) to reveal a blurred, soft color effect beneath.

Ken Price was born in 1935 and received his early education at the Chouinard Art Institute, the University of Southern California, the Otis Art Institute and Alfred University. Price knew from an early age that he wanted to be an artist, but stuffed to find his footing until a breakthrough show at Ferus Gallery in 1960. After that show, he became a prominent fixture in Los Angeles burgeoning mid-century art scene, alongside Ed Ruscha, Craig Kaufman, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Robert Irwin. He would go on to become known for his large-scale abstract sculptures, including a full room 1978 LACMA exhibition titled "Happy's Curios."

Price passed away in Taos, New Mexico in 2012. Ken Price's art is included in the permanent collections of works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.