Jack Coughlin Signed Numbered Surrealist Insect Etching, Large - Framed

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This is an original etching by Jack Coughlin, an American printmaker whose work hangs in the collections of MoMA, the … Read more This is an original etching by Jack Coughlin, an American printmaker whose work hangs in the collections of MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Boston Public Library. Coughlin taught for decades as Professor of Art at UMass Amherst and was a full member of the National Academy of Design, credentials that place his prints solidly in the world of serious 20th-century American printmaking. Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, he trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Students League of New York before settling into a long career as one of New England's most respected etchers. He was equally at home with realism and surrealism, and this piece falls firmly into the latter, using dense, almost obsessive linework to transform a small creature into something monumental and strange. The image is a striking surrealist study built around an insect form, rendered in Coughlin's signature layered hand of crosshatching, stippling, and sweeping gestural lines. It's hand-signed in pencil in the lower left margin and numbered from a limited edition in the lower right, exactly as Coughlin marked his authenticated work throughout his career. The plate work shows real technical control, with the darkest passages built up in a way that only comes from years at the etching press. The piece is presented in a beaded gold frame under glass, ready to hang as-is in a study, office, or gallery wall. This piece comes from a private Brookline, Massachusetts estate collection, adding a layer of quiet provenance to an already well-documented artist. Coughlin's surrealist animal and insect etchings are actively collected. This one has real presence on a wall — the kind of piece that stops people mid-conversation and gets asked about. A genuine, hand-pulled etching by a museum-collected artist at this size and price point doesn't come around often. See less