Baer-Carnera

Robert Riggs

1934 · Lithograph · Drawings and Prints

Prizefighting was highly popular in the U.S. during the first decades of the twentieth century and a recurring subject in Riggs’s oeuvre. Here, Riggs captured a moment of tension during the 1934 world heavyweight championship at the short-lived Madison Square Garden Bowl (1932–42) in Long Island City, Queens, during which Max Baer defeated Primo Carnera for the title. Riggs treated the boxing ring like a dramatically lit stage set, which he achieved through his unusual method of printmaking. To create his lithographs, Riggs applied a subtractive method, working from dark to light rather than the other way around, drawing on a limestone surface with a black lithographic crayon and removing the grease by rubbing the surface or scraping it with a razor blade.

Artist

Robert Riggs

Date

1934

Medium

Lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Robert McM. Gillespie, 1935