Joe Zucker, The Relocation of Property by Natural Forces, with the original colophon envelope, 1976

Joe Zucker
The Relocation of Property by Natural Forces
Rubber stamp print on Arches 88 paper
Stamp made by Unity Engraving Company, Inc.
Printed by Aaron Arnow
Paper size: 8 x 8 inches (20.3 x 20.3 cm)
Edition of 1000 (917)
Numbered lower verso. Unsigned.
Zucker initially worked on three images for the Rubber Stamp portfolio and finally settled on this one. The image, related to his iconic “Cotton” works of the same time period, is a socio-political commentary on the history and ramifications of industrialization.
The complete Rubber Stamp Portfolio is comprised of 13 rubber stamp prints, in black and white and color, from the artists Carl Andre, Richard Artschwager, Daniel Buren, Chuck Close, Barry LeVa, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Don Nice, Myron Stout, Tom Wesselmann, and Joe Zucker.

Joe Zucker Biography
American, 1941 - 2024
Joseph Irwin Zucker was born in Chicago. He received a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1964 and an M.F.A., from the same institution in 1966.

His art was quirky and idiosyncratic, and most often relates to the materials he used, such as cotton and plastic. In the 1970s, Zucker experimented with what became his signature technique: gluing cotton balls to canvas in a gridded arrangement and painting over them. Resulting in a highly textured surface reminiscent of mosaic, this technique radically transformed the surface of the canvas and challenged the “flatness” that critics like Clement Greenberg championed as essential to the discipline of painting.

In his compositions, Zucker constructed simplified geometric renderings of subjects like houses and sailboats, where the subject matter served only as a vehicle for the artist’s exploration of formal qualities. In his series of Box Paintings made in 2004-05, Zucker constructed shallow wooden boxes with various compartments into which he poured a single color of enamel, resulting in flat areas of color that alluded to the ideals of modernist painting.