Milton, Peter (American, born 1930). JULIA PASSING. Lift-ground etching, engraving, aquatint and plate tone on cream wove paper, 1967. Johnson/Milton 52. The Second State, published in an edition of 60 in 1968 (there was an edition of 100 in the First State in 1967). 17 3/4 x 23 7/8 inches, 451 x 606 mm. (plate), plus full margins. Framed to 26 1/2 x 32 1/2 inches. In excellent condition. This Print is discussed in a 1971 Article in "Artist's Proof" titled "Julia Passing: The World of Peter Milton" by Irving L. FinkelsteinThe excerpt below explains why Milton will rework compositions from earlier to later States, with separate editions of each State being essentially new and different prints. "Even after a composition has been completed and printed, Milton has felt the need to expand and develop further the possibilities inherent in the basic idea. This has led him to evolve second states of several of his works, and he has expressed his desire to develop and modify others with which he has experienced growing dissatisfaction. In each instance the evolution of a second state has entailed the addition of new elements to render more emphatic the effect of the original composition. In no case has there been a reduction or simplification of the original scheme.Possibly the most widely known work of this later group is the print `Julia Passing,' which exists in two states, the first completed in 1967, the second in 1968. Organized on a one-point perspective construction, the architectural framework sweeps the viewer into a deep and very active space. The downward movement of the stairs forces a dislocation of the horizon. The viewer must shift his position and travel in more than one direction at a time. The coexistence of rows of houses on one level at the upper right and a man on a chair in the area at the lower left, oriented to a different horizon line, produces a tension, perhaps even a feeling of frustration at not being able to establish a logical relationship of all the parts of the scene. Similarly the rhythm created by the figures of the children advancing toward the picture plane and ultimately into the viewer's own space counteracts the physical movement downward and backward with a psychological movement upward and forward. The children seem real, warm and alive, and they engage the viewer emotionally. But only for a moment. For they are passing, as it were, from one state to another, from one period of time to another. The whole configuration, then, takes on the effect of a dream, or of a collection of memories of what once was, and projections of what is to come. Are they the dreams or the memories of that seated aging man at the lower left, longing perhaps for youth, for innocence, and possibly also preoccupied with inevitable death? The work remains largely an enigma."Peter Milton was born in Pennsylvania. He studied with Albers and Peterdi at Yale, graduating with a BFA in 1954, along with a fellowship which allowed him to travel in Europe for a year. .He received an MFA from Yale in 1962. His long, still on-going career as a printmaker began during the years he lived and taught at the Maryland Art Institute in Baltimore.
