Julie Roberts

Sean Kelly Gallery is pleased to announce the publication of Julie Roberts’ etching portfolio,
Sickert’s Shadow . In Sickert’s Shadow , Roberts’ first-ever printed body of work, she masterfully
employs etching, aquatint, and spit-bite washes, to achieve the trademark aesthetic developed in
her drawings and paintings. The five-print portfolio (title page included) was editioned by master
New York printer, Greg Burnett, and was co-published by the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery.

Sickert’s Shadow examines the legacy of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper through an
oblique reference to recent, unsubstantiated claims that turn-of-the-century English
Impressionist painter Walter Sickert was himself the Ripper. In her 2003-04 solo exhibition Home
at Sean Kelly Gallery Roberts produced an impressive suite of eight-drawings as well as an oil
painting of the Ripper’s eviscerated victims. While subtler than the aforementioned work, the
prints comprising Sickert’s Shadow show the artist using a new medium to grapple with familiar
themes.

In Sickert’s Shadow one also sees Roberts entering into a dialogue with Walter Sickert the painter,
not the rumored Ripper suspect. Sickert was well-known, if not always well-liked, in his time for
focusing on London’s marginalized inhabitants – specifically prostitutes and the poor. Like
Sickert, Roberts has never shied away from challenging subject matter, making both artists’
frankness a direct conceptual link between them.

Three of the prints in the portfolio - L’Affaire de Camden Town , Woman Seated on a Bed, Dieppe ,
and La Maigre Adeline – are Roberts’ interpretations of some of Sickert’s more notorious portraits
- all are bedroom scenes of women in various states of undress. With Roberts’ touch, these
portraits are transformed from heavy-handed commentaries on late-nineteenth century English
life into, eerie, ironic homages to a great, under-appreciated artistic predecessor. The final image
in the portfolio is a profile view of Sickert himself, taken from a well-known early 20th century
photograph. The shadowy portrait is, in equal measures, haunting and affectionate. In Sickert’s
Shadow , Roberts channels the Dickensian grimness of Sickert’s oil paintings, whilst infusing them
with her own sense of humor.

Sickert’s Shadow was published in an edition of 30 plus 8 Artist’s Proofs. Each portfolio of five,
15 x 12 inch prints comes in a custom red, cloth-covered clamshell box. Until April 1st, the
portfolio is available at the pre-publication price of $5,000 (unframed). Please contact Jonah
Stern at jonah at skny.com for further details.