Suite Louisiana: Storyville – The Last Salon
Color Etching, 2007, edition of 35, 23 1/2 x 35 ¾. This piece is in excellent condition, a depiction of the historic Storyville in New Orleans, the true birthplace of jazz.

Warrington Colescott, a Wisconsin based printmaker with deep ties to New Orleans, renders his observations of society and everyday life through his prints. Colescott’s satiric work maintains some of the best traditions of printmaking: bold images, controversial and unconventional positions on a range of topics from politics, culture, history, art history, education, war and even his own profession – printmaking. What is also astonishing is the artist’s consistency over the decades. The graphically bold, quasi-figurative works of the late 1940s and early `50s begat the abstractions of the mid-‘50s. These gently metamorphose into his trademark multi-figurative compositions in the `60s, and, in the `70s, settle into the seemingly anarchic narratives that he still produces today. Colescott has said about his work: "My prints and paintings are narratives, both direct and metaphorical. The intent is moral, if your morality is in my ballpark. The method is satire; comedy is OK, but pretty much anything goes if it fits my drawing concept on paper or copper plate."