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ROBERT STACKHOUSE
(American, born 1942)
The Diviners, 1990
Etching and aquatint on white wove paper, 14/45
48 1/4 x 95 3/4” plate
54 5/8 x 101 3/4" sheet
Gift of Donna Turner Petersen and purchase 1991.9

American artist Robert Stackhouse is celebrated for his monumental watercolors, drawings, prints, and outdoor sculpture. Educated at the Universities of Florida and Maryland, where he earned a B.A. and M.A., respectively, Stackhouse made a name for himself as a sculptor in the 1980s. Fascinated with structures such as the A-frame and the Viking Ship, the artist installed large-scale sculptures of not only ships and A-frame constructions—in both museum and outdoor environments— but also of serpents. In the early 1990s, Stackhouse turned his attention from these sculptures to amply sized paintings and prints of similar subjects. The Diviners illustrates two shapes that are reminiscent of A-frame structures. The extreme detail in the renderings, which appear to float on the paper, exhibit Stackhouse’s technical and spatial skills.