“I Dreamed I Found a Red Ruby”
18″ x 18″, lithograph on paper (signed, numbered 25/40) (1984)
This is my second personal Gemini G.E.L. purchase, after Ben Shahn’s “Levana”. The number in the middle is a unique “Borofsky number”. In 1969, Borofsky began sequentially writing down numbers as a meditative exercise, and he just never stopped. Eventually, he began adding to each completed work the number he had counted up to at that time. So, for example, even though this is an edition of 40 (plus proofs), each print in the edition has a different Borofsky number (2779969 through 2780033; this one is 2780014) in addition to its regular edition number (here, 25/40).
The other interesting thing about this print is the name, which it shares with at least three other Borofsky works. There’s a massive sculptural installation, a sculptural edition, and another much larger lithograph (the latter two both also published by Gemini G.E.L.). My “red ruby” is just the ruby itself–no need to be greedy. And by happy happenstance, it also evokes the Portland Fire logo.
David Schraub 