Eight Commandment: Don’t steal; thou’lt never thus compete successfully in business; cheat

Artist:

Peter Paone

(b. 1936)

Eight Commandment: Don’t steal; thou’lt never thus compete successfully in business; cheat

Medium: Etching and aquatint on paper
Date: 1963
Dimensions:
30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm.)
Accession number: 2023.13.39
Curatorial RemarksThis multiheaded insect emerging from the darkness symbolizes for Peter Paone (b. 1936) the egotism and greed of the political and commercial arenas of the 1960s.


Completed in 1963, The Ten Commandments of Ambrose Bierce garnered Paone a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1965, allowing him to study in London and Paris. The Brandywine’s exhibition, “In Shadows’ Embrace: Prints by Peter Paone” (2024) is the first time in 57 years that the portfolio is being shown in full, the last being at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.

On view