Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink print by Newton Harrison Helen Mayer Harrison. It dates from 2011 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
The artists layered bright colors with sharp, scientific lines to show how water will flood homes and farms.
This 2011 print set shows sea levels rising around a lush green coastline. The artists layered bright colors with sharp, scientific lines to show how water will flood homes and farms. Tiny details like roads turning into rivers make the threat feel real.
The Harrisons spent decades making art about climate change. Here they mix old print methods like etching with digital prints to show future floods.
Look up etching if you want to see the same technique used by artists like Rembrandt.
Overview
Untitled, produced in 2011, is a multi‑component print portfolio by the collaborative duo Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. The work comprises three screenprints, two etchings and aquatints, three digitally printed images combined with chine collé, and five additional digital prints that incorporate the artists’ own text. It is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Subject & Meaning
The images depict a verdant shoreline increasingly submerged as sea levels rise, using vivid hues and precise, diagrammatic lines to illustrate the encroachment of water onto residential and agricultural zones. Small visual cues—such as streets transforming into streams—convey the tangible impact of climate‑driven flooding on everyday environments.
Technique & Style
The portfolio merges traditional printmaking processes, including etching and aquatint, with contemporary digital printing and the collage technique of chine collé. This combination of analog and digital methods creates layered compositions where hand‑crafted textures intersect with crisp, data‑like graphics, reflecting the artists’ interest in bridging scientific representation and visual art.
History & Provenance
Created during a period when the Harrisons were intensifying their focus on ecological concerns, the work entered MoMA’s collection shortly after its completion. The museum acquired the piece as part of its effort to document contemporary practices that address environmental change through interdisciplinary media.
Context
Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison have spent several decades producing work that investigates climate change, land use, and ecological systems. Untitled continues this trajectory, employing the language of cartography and scientific illustration to engage viewers with projected environmental scenarios.
Legacy
By integrating historic print techniques with modern digital processes, the portfolio exemplifies a methodological shift in environmental art, influencing subsequent artists who explore climate issues through hybrid media and data‑driven visual strategies.
Artist & collection
Artist
Newton Harrison Helen Mayer Harrison
Newton Harrison Helen Mayer Harrison was an American) (American artist.
