The Brandywine Museum of Art is presenting In Shadows’ Embrace: Prints by Peter Paone, featuring more than 20 prints by the acclaimed Philadelphia artist and teacher. Over his seven-decade career, Paone has mastered the mediums of painting, drawing and printmaking. His extraordinary ability to infuse the figurative tradition with his fantastical imagination is evident throughout his oeuvre. On view now through Oct. 13, In Shadows’ Embrace highlights a major recent gift by Paone to the Museum of 52 of his etchings, the majority of which were created in the 1960s. Together, these offer an overview of both Paone’s early career and his printmaking practice.

Known today largely as a painter, Paone had early success in printmaking, specifically etching, and it is that medium he feels was critical to his artistic development. Paone learned printmaking at John Bartram High School and the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) in the 1950s. Throughout the following decade he gained recognition for his etchings and devoted himself almost entirely to printmaking. Major inspiration for Paone was the work of two European artists, Francisco Goya working in the eighteenth century, and Käthe Kollwitz working early in the twentieth century. Like those artists before him, Paone created images that reflect the plight of the human condition—in his case, in the context of America in the 1960s. 

A centerpiece of the exhibition is Paone’s portfolio titled The Ten Commandments of Ambrose Bierce (1963), which will be shown in full for only the third time, the last being at the Musèe d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1967. In this tour de force of printmaking, Paone gives visual form to writer and poet Ambrose Bierce’s Decalogue (1906), a biting satire of contemporary society based on biblical principles from the Book of Exodus. The fourth commandment, for example, becomes “Work not on Sabbath days at all, / But go to see the teams play ball,” and the seventh becomes “Kiss not thy neighbor’s wife, unless / Thine own thy neighbor doth caress.” Inspired by Bierce’s irreverent writing, Paone created otherworldly images, at times witty, at times demonic, that bring these “commandments” to life. The suite of prints sets up a fascinating dialogue between Paone and Bierce across decades and across disciplines. Working with printer Charles Hunsberger, whose workshop was in Philadelphia, Paone combined etching with aquatint for the series, which created a rich variety of tones that amplify the dark visionary quality of his imagery. 

Subjects in 10 other etchings in the exhibition include historical figures such as Queen Elizabeth I, quasi-human mythical figures, and floral still-lifes. All reflect Paone’s remarkable technical skills and his mastery at crafting enigmatic narratives, wherein even a vase of flowers is transformed into a meditation on death. 

“Peter Paone is an artist who creates compelling, haunting images—he brings a kind of fever dream to the tradition of figurative art,” said Thomas Padon, the James H. Duff Director of the Brandywine Museum of Art. “In this dazzling group of prints, one sees not only Paone’s fervid imagination but also his technical prowess in printmaking. This donation marks a significant addition to our collection of graphic work by Philadelphia-based artists, and I am profoundly grateful to him for his generosity.”

The artist was also the subject of the exhibition Reality Reassembled: The Halloween Paintings of Peter Paone in 2019 at the Brandywine Museum of Art. Since then, the Museum has acquired two of his paintings, including a remarkable self-portrait from 2012, and a drawing. 

The guest curator of the exhibition is Audrey Lewis, formerly associate curator of the Brandywine Museum of Art.