1970s Patrick Dupre Foil Etching. Intricate aluminum foil etching on white cardboard. Produced in France. Featuring classic op art design and chrome-like effect which shimmers and transforms in the light. Unique 1970s original work from Patrick Dupre titled ' Two Become One'. Etching is not signed.

Size: 21.2"H x 17.5"W. 

Condition: Good condition with heavy scratching in various sections due to natural age. Right bottom corner slightly scuffed but not noticeable overall.

About the Artist - Patrick Dupre

Patrick Dupré was born in 1945 in Paris, France, and became a leading figure of French Op Art and Kinetic art. He created his first work, "Skyscraper," in 1964 while working for the aluminum company Pechiney, using rubber, ink, a sharpener, a blade, and a Shabu knife directly on an aluminum plate. From 1965 to 1968 he worked as a street artist, selling his work every weekend on the Boulevard Saint-Michel at the gates of the Lycée Saint-Louis, and in 1968 he found himself swept into history more directly: he participated in the May uprisings in Paris, the student-and-worker revolt that nearly brought down the French government. 

In the early 1970s he turned that street-level resourcefulness into a genuine technical innovation. Between 1971 and 1973 he developed his own technique for reproducing engravings on aluminum foil, and invented a new method for industrial engraving on silver, gold, and metal bowls, alongside mastering traditional etching, copperplate engraving, gravure, and drypoint. His numbered, signed Op Art prints were distributed by Éditions Lahumière of Paris throughout the 1970s and 80s, and his kinetic works were shown in galleries and museums internationally, including the FIAC in Paris and exhibitions in Cologne, Basel, London, Chicago, and Las Vegas. He kept good company: he exhibited alongside Nicolas Schöffer at the first Salon of Audiovisual Art at Porte de Versailles in 1971, exhibited with members of the Argentine kinetic art collective GRAV (including Julio Le Parc and Horacio García Rossi), and collaborated on Op Art and kinetic prints with Victor Vasarely, arguably the most famous Op Art figure of the era. 

His curiosity didn't stop at printmaking. In 1989 he won the grand prize of the Concours Lépine in Paris for his research into insect flight and his invention of a revolutionary windsurf sail, and he later spent a decade developing tactile relief and Braille techniques to improve accessibility for the visually impaired in public spaces.