Luis Camnitzer
Envelope
1967
In 1965, Luis Camnitzer founded the New York Graphic workshop with Liliana Porter and José Guillermo Castillo, and thus began to explore the political potential of printmaking. Conceptualized under this experimental framework, Camnitzer’s Envelope series utilizes the highly communicative properties of reproduction, and their potential to reach a wide public audience. Ten identical etchings, comprised of two concentric squares connected by diagonal lines, are differentiated only by their caption: “envelope,” “tunnel,” “painting,” “window,” “screen,” “room,” “grid,” “box,” “cube,” and “roof.” These captions encourage alternate interpretations of the same form, underscoring Camnitzer’s political and artistic response to the rigidity and limitations of minimalist art.
