"Peer Group" Post-Modern Black and White Lithograph by Richard Proctor

Richard Proctor (1936-2022) was a prolific and versatile artist who produced various works, including written and pictorial experiments. He received a Bachelor of Science in Art Education in 1959 and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Michigan State University in 1962. He taught in the art department at the University of Washington until he retired in 1992. Richard’s artwork has been displayed at the Seattle Art Museum, the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Bellevue Art Museum, the Detroit Art Institute, and the NYC Museum of Contemporary Crafts.

This lithograph is numbered 3/5 and titled Peer Group.
In Peer Group, Richard Proctor constructs an entanglement of angular faces in black lines, carved into the very texture of the paper. The dense composition plays with full and empty spaces, thick strokes and fine breaks, blurring the boundaries between figures. Here, abstraction doesn’t erase the human presence — it fragments it.

The title directs the viewer’s attention: Peer Group — a group of equals, but also a play on “peer,” as in looking closely. The viewer is prompted to search for features. But once found, clarity falters: two faces, three eyes.
One gaze becomes the gaze of another. A figure shares the eye of its neighbor.

REFERENCE NUMBER: LU654316074162
PERIOD: 1960-1969
CONDITION: Good
MEASUREMENTS: Height: 11.5" Width: 19.25" Depth: 1"
COUNT: 1
MATERIAL: Etching
CREATOR: Richard Proctor