Au Fond is a color viscosity intaglio from 1967 by American artist and master printer, Richard Benjamin Royce. It is pencil signed, titled, dated, and editioned 16/40. It was printed by the artist on ivory Rives BFK and the platemark measures 17-1/4 x 13-5/8 inches.
Au Fond is a result of Royce’s two-year immersion in printmaking at Atelier 17 in Paris where groundbreaking advances in color viscosity printing (simultaneous color printing) were established. It is difficult to ascertain if this was printed at the end of his time at Atelier 17 or after he returned to the United States in 1967. Royce’s imagery is as evasive as his title but it seems that he is delving into the subconscious where reality is altered; shapes at the top of the image morph into fishes while emerging out of the darkness of the foreground is a minotaur and a large fowl.
Richard Benjamin Royce, printmaker, sculptor, master printer, and classical guitarist, was born in New York on August 18, 1941. He attended Forest Hills High School before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he studied sculpture and printmaking. Royce earned his MFA degree in printmaking under Alfred Sessler and was the studio assistant to Warrington Colescott. He graduated with the class of 1965 and then went to Paris where he studied for two years at Stanley W. Hayter’s Atelier 17.
On returning to the United States, Royce taught printmaking at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles between 1967 and 1969. After he asked to assist with Roy Lichtenstein’s first woodcut at Gemini GEL, Royce opened his own studio in Santa Monica. He was director and master printer at Atelier Royce for twenty-five years. He produced etchings, cast paper, paintings and sculptural commissions of his own work while at the same time helping artists to realize works in various media. Atelier Royce printed for hundreds of artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Marisol, George Segal, Raphael Soyer, Francoise Gilot, James Rosenquist, Paul Jenkins, and Hamaguchi.
Richard Royce is also an accomplished classical guitarist, specializing in Flamenco learned from Aron Gilmartin as well as classical artist Jose Barossa, Blues artist Jo Mack, and Jazz artist Freddy Kaya.
