‌
FairArt Logo

Colour & Text

In October 2022 Copenhagen's Shrig Shop turned eight David Shrigley paintings into the 'Colour & Text' posters, offset lithographs in editions of 250. Each reproduces one of his hand-lettered colour paintings, and the series also includes the set of all eight.

All Colour & Text Works By David Shrigley (9)

Significance & Analysis

'Colour & Text' was the first time Shrig Shop's limited-edition posters reproduced Shrigley's paintings rather than his ink drawings, released just as he was bringing his colour work together for the first time in a book of its own.

The paintings behind the posters

The eight paintings were made between 2018 and 2022. 'Gap in the Clouds' is the earliest, from 2018, and 'Raspberry Soda Cured My Insanity' the latest, from 2022; the other six date from 2021. Shrigley makes his colour paintings in acrylic on thick paper and, by his own account, hardly mixes the paint: "it's pretty primitive." He began working in colour around 2011 and gives a simple reason for it: "There are some things that look better in colour."

Two weeks after the posters went on sale, Shrig Shop announced 'Get Your Shit Together', a book of more than 200 works and the first to show only his work in colour.

Between two black-and-white collections

The shop's first limited-edition posters, 'Human Behaviour & Animals & Existentialism', had come out six months earlier, in April 2022: eight posters made from black-and-white drawings, in the same edition size of 250. After the colour release the shop went back to drawings. 'The Black & White Collection #2' followed in March 2023, again with eight posters but in larger editions of 350.

How Do the Colour & Text Posters Differ From Shrig Shop's Black-and-White Posters?

Apart from the colour, by their paper. The eight were printed in offset lithography by Narayana Press in Denmark on 200g Arctic Volume, a coated matt paper made for colour printing, while the black-and-white collections on either side of them use uncoated 200g Munken Lynx. The sheet is the same upright 70 x 50 cm format. Like those collections, these posters are unsigned and unnumbered and were sold unframed, and the set of eight is made up of the same posters.

Which Titles Make Up Colour & Text?

The eight posters are 'Gap in the Clouds', 'I Am Happy', 'I Like Existing', 'I'm In the Midst of It', 'If You Need Me', 'It's Just One Fucking Thing After Another', 'Occupy the Space You Are Given' and 'Raspberry Soda Cured My Insanity'. The set of eight brings all of them together. Some dealers list 'Occupy the Space You Are Given' under its longer form, 'Occupy The Space You Are Given As Best You Can'; it is the same poster.

How Were the Colour & Text Posters Released?

In person first. Shrig Shop's store on Tullinsgade in Copenhagen sold them on Saturday 22 October 2022, from 11:00 to 16:00, and the posters that remained went online at 15:00 CEST the next afternoon. Each design was sold individually, with a limit of two of each design per person.

How Is the Gap in the Clouds Poster Different From the A Gap In The Clouds Screenprint?

They are different editions. The 'Gap in the Clouds' poster reproduces a 2018 painting as an unsigned offset lithograph in an edition of 250, published by Shrig Shop in 2022. 'A Gap In The Clouds' is a 2020 screenprint published by Jealous Gallery, printed in nine colours with a varnish overlay on 410gsm Somerset Satin paper, at 55 x 75 cm, in an edition of 125.