Sea Forms

John Ferren's Sea Forms is an abstract composition that also, as the title notes, suggests mollusks and shell shapes floating in an aqua-blue sea. Curved bands of graduated color and shifts from dark to light hint at three-dimensional volumes and smoothly rounded surfaces such as those found both in marine life and in machinery. Ferren's deft illusion of sculptural form reflects his explorations of pure composition and formal values in sculpture and painting. He made Sea Forms during a period he spent working in Paris, between 1931 and 1938, during which he interacted with avant-garde artists, joining their experimentation with biomorphic forms and the inspiration of dreams and the subconscious.

In Paris, Ferren studied with experimental printmaker Stanley William Hayter and began making prints at his influential Atelier 17 workshop. Hayter introduced Ferren to an unusual printmaking technique involving using an engraved copperplate to impress an image in poured plaster, from which paper impressions could then be pulled. Trained as a stone-carver, Ferren evidently was drawn to this process because after pulling two-dimensional print impressions in paper from the plaster matrix (or transferring the image to other plaster surfaces) he could carve and paint the plaster itself, thereby transforming it into a remarkable relief sculpture. Since Ferren's practice in this plaster technique occurred around 1937, the date assigned to this impression, printmaking scholars have speculated that it was made from a plaster matrix rather than from the engraved copperplate. This rare print is known in only a few impressions. Its organic shapes and graceful curves that just hint at animal forms and movement are emblematic of a strain of biomorphic abstraction in mid-twentieth-century American art also seen in Alexander Archipenko's Torso in Space (TF 1996.90) and in Cinq Personnages (TF 1995.37) by Ferren's teacher Hayter.

L'Amérique et les Modernes, 1900–1950 (American Moderns, 1900–1950), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 25–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Atelier 17: Modern Printmaking in the Americas (Atelier 17: Gravura moderna nas Américas, Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) and Terra Foundation for American Art (organizer). Venue: Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), March 23–June 2, 2019. [exh. cat.]

American Modernist Prints: 1900-1945. (exh. cat., Susan Sheehan Inc.). New York: Susan Sheehan Inc., 1987. No. 83. Rossetti de Toledo, Carolina, Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, and Peter John Brownlee. Atelier 17 e a gravura moderna nas Americas / Atelier 17 and Modern Printmaking in the Americas. (exh. cat., Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo). São Paulo, Brazil: 2019. Text pp. 222-223; ill. p. 221 (color).