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Each of Tacita Dean’s 80 Pantone Pairs is a combination of a found postcard paired with a commercially-printed Pantone postcard. Dean found the Pantone cards in Topanga Vintage Market and immediately knew that she wanted to work on a monoprint project using the color complement of the Pantone color. She counted the cards and was thankful there were exactly 80 of them. The accompanying postcards come from Dean’s extensive collection, found worldwide in flea markets wherever she was visiting. Some of postcards used in Pantone Pairs have been in her collection for over 25 years. Dean hand-painted each pairing, applying ink with a palette knife and sending individual cards through a small etching press with the assistance of Gemini Masterprinter Case Hudson. The color of the inks was determined via the Pantone phone “app,” matching the color on the Pantone card and also locating the precise “complementary” Pantone color. The 160 colors required for the project were mixed by Hudson’s etching team of Isabelle Beausang, Oliver Dewey-Gartner, Brittany Fields, Isaac Osher and Amy Jo Toucey.
After several weeks, the thick ink application was finally dry, and Dean was able to work with the cards to finalize their composition within a 15 x 12 ½" (38.1 x 31.8 cm) format. The paired cards are framed together in a black lacquer molding with Optium glazing. Windows have been cut through the mat on the back of the frames in order to reveal the verso of the cards. The found postcards bear witness to their history as instruments of correspondence, and the title and Gemini copyright information have been added; on the Pantone card, Dean has signed, dated and titled each work in pencil.
