[Angus, Rita], 1908-1970: Rita Cook. [Bookplate. 1937-1938]

Bookplate shows a full-length profile portrait of artist Rita Angus at the right, her hand tied to a ball and chain. Behind her in the centre is a pyramid, with city buildings and a mountain in the distance. A large snake coils around the pyramid, its head at upper left facing Rita Angus / Cook. A fish leaps out of the water at lower left, and at top right a dagger is poised over the artist's head partly within a ring encircling a starry constellation.

Artist confirmed in Vita Cochran's essay "What the pyramind contains", in "Rita Angus; life and vision", edited by William McAloon and Jill Trevelyan (2008), page 41.

Rita Angus is said to have drawn this image in a mood of annoyance with Leo Bensemann. The style is closer to Bensemann's than to her own, possibly as a way of showing that she could draw in his style. In a letter to Douglas Lilburn, quoted in Cochran's article, Rita Angus writes: "The sword is the curse of my being born an artist, and also cuts across the ring, which is my marriage. A mistake for both of us, my husband and myself. The stars are Pisces and the Southern Cross. The chains are conventions holding me back from being what I am. The grinning head is Leo, the snake is man. You will notice that the eyes are intent on the mountains and not on man. I wanted the mountains, this was before I painted all those watercolours of Central Otago. The buildings are cities. And the Pyramid contains all that I didnt know and understand about myself, in other words, what I am, and my power"

Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s).

Physical Description: Linocut, 125 x 91 mm, on sheet 161 x 117 mm.