The Way thru the Woods

Minna Citron began her artistic career at age twenty eight as a figurative painter, and worked for the Federal Art Project in the 1930s. She is best known for the abstract color etching style she developed in the 1940s. Her interest in printmaking and etching in particular was influenced by her involvement in Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17 workshop in New York, in which relief etching served as a starting point for technical experimentation with the medium. The two Citron prints from the William S. Lieberman collection were produced using multiple plates, which quietly focus on the interplay of color and aquatint textures. At least one of these sheets was a personal gift to Lieberman, then the Curator of Prints at MoMA. In the margin of The Way thru the Woods, Citron noted that, as his institution already had one, this impression would be her gift to him. The Christmas Tree decal she affixed next to the inscription adds another personalizing touch.