Robert Cottingham – part 4

An American Alphabet (1997 - 2011). 
26 colour lithographs in an edition of 40, printed and published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI.
A project more than twenty years in the making.

Cottingham began work on the first gouaches for the Alphabet while at the McDowell colony in 1993, though the photographs from which the images are drawn extend back decades before that. Over the following four years Cottingham made oil paintings of the full alphabet. In 1997 he made lithographs of K and F with Tandem Press, and he has been executing a few letters a year ever since. The last three - U, Y and Q were completed in 2012.

Cottingham’s 26 letters are a collection, salvaged from a variety of mid-century American commercial signs; most are neon, a handful are moulded plastic. Each of these prints is the result of a lengthy chain of representations from life to photograph to drawing to gouache to oil painting to print. The lithograph “A” for example, reconstitutes the painting “A,” but both derive from a photograph of the marquee of the Los Angeles Art Theatre, itself the source of Cottingham’s 1971 painting and 1992 lithograph, both titled "Art."

With a few other letter forms I have identified as belonging to previous subject matter, or from the same source material, I have also shown the relevant work.

2001 An American Alphabet A 
lithograph 78.7 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1992 Art 
lithograph 117.5 x 116.8 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2008 An American Alphabet B 
lithograph 77.5 x 63.5 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2008 An American Alphabet C 
lithograph 78.1 x 62.2 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1998 An American Alphabet D 
lithograph 78.8 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2008 An American Alphabet E 
lithograph 77.5 x 63.5 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1997 An American Alphabet F 
lithograph 78.7 x 75.6 cm
 © Robert Cottingham

2009 An American Alphabet G 
lithograph 78.1 x 52.7 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2010 An American Alphabet H 
lithograph 78.7 x 55.9 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2009 An American Alphabet I 
lithograph 78.1 x 57.8 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2003 An American Alphabet J 
lithograph 77.5 x 60 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1997 An American Alphabet K 
lithograph 78.7 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2005 An American Alphabet L 
lithograph 78.7 x 55.2 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2002 An American Alphabet M 
lithograph 77.5 x 55.6 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2011 An American Alphabet N 
lithograph 77.8 x 59.7 cm 
© Robert Cottingham

2007 An American Alphabet O 
lithograph 78.1 x 53.3 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1971 Ode 
oil on canvas 198.1 x 198.1 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2005 An American Alphabet P 
lithograph 78.7 x 56.2 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2011 An American Alphabet Q 
lithograph 77.5 x 61 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2002 An American Alphabet R 
lithograph 78.7 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1968 Ralph's II 
© Robert Cottingham

2007 An American Alphabet S 
lithograph 77.5 x 59.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1979 The Spot 
oil on canvas 81.3 x 81.3 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2002 An American Alphabet T 
lithograph 78.7 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2011 An American Alphabet U 
lithograph 77.8 x 50.8 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2004 An American Alphabet V 
lithograph 79.1 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2010 An American Alphabet W 
lithograph 79.1 x 61 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2009 An American Alphabet X 
lithograph 78.1 x 60 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1973 Fox 
lithograph 53.1 x 53.3 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2011 An American Alphabet Y 
lithograph 77.5 x 55.9 cm
© Robert Cottingham

2008 An American Alphabet Z 
lithograph 77.5 x 58.4 cm
© Robert Cottingham

1976 Kurtz 
acrylic on paper 26.7 x 26.7 cm
© Robert Cottingham