Green Etching was created by Kim Lim in 1969 and is one of five limited edition prints generously made available by the estate of the artist in support of Tate.

From her studies at the Slade onwards, Kim Lim was equally committed to sculpture and printmaking. Her concerns in her sculptural practice, privileging space, rhythm and light over volume and weight, were mirrored in her explorations as an accomplished print-maker. The two influenced each other, with print-making allowing her to reveal in two-dimensions that which is impossible in the three-dimensional object and visa versa. For example, organic, circular forms in her etchings of the late 1960s and early 1970s were later reflected in a large commission in stone, Spiral III, 1983. In Ladder Series, 1972, Lim uses line and repetition on the etching plate to create ‘ladder’ shapes through negative space on paper. These ‘ladder’ shapes can be seen in her wooden sculpture series, Intervals, 1973, which similarly reveal the value of negative space. The physicality of the wood block or etching plate itself refers back to sculpture; the process of print-making allowing Lim’s vision to transcend mass and push beyond material permanence.