The online space creates access to the art world in ways that have never previously existed. I want to share EditionedArt because I’m so excited about it. It is an online gallery where you can buy limited edition fine art prints with literally the click of a button. I was impressed by the range of artists they had on the website and the competitive pricing.

EditionedArt was founded by Heidi Lee, an Art Advisor and Curator who wanted to bring fine art prints by great artists to the online shopper. In the era of net-a-porter or giltgroupe I think EditionedArt falls in line with the transparency and ease of transaction that today’s consumer enjoys.

Alex, 1970, lithograph

This is how it works:

All the artwork offered is screened to ensure authenticity and review the condition. You can easily browse the inventory, searching either by category or artist. There is a full description including cataloguing, images, a brief summary of the artist and the price. Once you have selected something that you would like, you simply add it to your cart and sign into the membership area where they accept all major credit cards. The transaction process is streamlined and efficient.

On the right side of the screen there is a ‘Curator’s Pick’ that changes frequently and also a newsletter that is free to subscribe to. For someone who is just entering the collecting realm and doesn’t want to leave their home or office this is an excellent alternative and a perfect venue. It is not only for the amateur collector or decorator, there are some seriously heavy hitters (at the time I’m writing this there is a Francis Bacon aquatint priced at $18,000.00).

I’m excited to see where this project will go and hopefully expose more people to the fine art print medium.

Some other interesting art collecting and art based social networking websites to check out:

Art.sy

Art + Culture

Left to right: Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society, New York, via Christie's; Sotheby's/European Pressphoto Agency

I found this discussion on the New York Times ‘Opinion’ section online and thought it was particularly relevant in lieu of the recent events of the February and May auctions in London and New York.

Can Art Be ‘Priceless’ in Rocky Times?

I would like to specifically focus your attention to Donald Kuspit and Kathryn Graddy’s comments. Both examine these record breaking prices from a commodity perspective that I think is necessary and refreshing. Graddy clearly explains the financial reasoning behind ‘investing’ in art, a debate that is constantly being batted back and forth between collectors and art enthusiasts.

This is an excerpt from the New York Times:

“What explains the quick return to confidence in the art market?”

May 23, 2010, 7:00 pm

This month, a painting by Picasso, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” became the most expensive painting ever sold at an auction when it exceeded expectations to fetch $106.5 million at Christie’s. In February, a sculpture by Giacometti, “Walking Man I,” sold for $104.3 million at Sotheby’s, setting the previous world record auction price.

What accounts for these auction prices? Are investments in trophy art any different from investments made in an office park or a sports team?

• Denis Dutton, professor of philosophy of art
• Eileen Kinsella, editor of ARTnewsletter
• Donald Kuspit, art historian
• Kathryn Graddy, economist

Beauty Should Be Expensive

Dennis Dutton is a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is the author of ” The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution” and the editor of  Arts & Letters Daily.

Generally speaking, art is a poor long-term investment. Though the popular media concentrates on a tiny class of aesthetic objects that have risen spectacularly in price — like Van Goghs or Picassos, for example — most works of art tend to decline in value from their first point of sale.

The fundamental aesthetic expressivity of works of art is delivered to audiences in very different forms. Literary works are words strung together in order to be cheaply reproduced and sold in large numbers. Although there is a market in first editions and, rarer still, original manuscripts, anyone can fully enjoy the aesthetic experience of “Pride and Prejudice” by reading a dog-eared paperback.

While music, drama and dance offer audiences the frisson of live performance, they are also endlessly replicable — and pleasurable — in recordings and films.

Paintings and sculptures remain the locus of yet another kind of value. A painting is in principle the singular physical product of an individual artist’s hand and mind. Its complex textures and color gradations will likely make it impossible to trust the accuracy of any reproduction. As we see it today, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” is, down to exquisite detail, exactly what it is because of Picasso’s skill and expressive power.

In this respect, the painting is a perfect, intricate and utterly irreplaceable record of a historic artistic achievement. Whether or not you regard it as a truly great Picasso (personally, I don’t), it is a solid investment: Picasso’s place in the foreseeable future of art seems assured, and with it the interest and value of this painting.

The high prices commanded by top-end works of art are often ridiculed as somehow crazy or even obscene. Why is paying $100 million for an ugly downtown office building acceptable, while the same sum paid for an object of enduring beauty is a scandal? I rather find reassurance in the idea that in at least some of its forms, beauty can be a traded — and sublimely expensive — commodity.

Art That’s Recession-Proof

Eileen Kinsella is the editor of ARTnewsletter. She is a regular contributor to ARTnews.

In the summer of 2008 when the financial crisis was reaching its height, collectors, auction house experts and dealers were nervously wondering how and when the art market would be affected. A few months later, they had their answer when high-ticket items — like a $25 million Van Gogh — were left unsold on the auction block, volume dropped sharply, and buyers retrenched.

The overall total for the spring 2009 auctions of postwar and contemporary and Impressionist and modern art was $421.2 million, a sharp drop from the $803.3 million total of fall 2008 and an even sharper drop from the $1.6 billion of 2008 spring sales. It was the lowest total in seven years, and a clear sign that the economy was weighing heavily on the art market.

However, not everyone saw this as a bad thing. Longtime collectors had become frustrated with the intense — often frothy — competition for both established blue-chip masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse and Rothko, as well as for contemporary art such as work by Jeff Koons and Richard Prince.

One collector complained that he had gotten tired of “paddle elbow,” a joking reference to tennis elbow about intense competition in the auction room. Another said he couldn’t wait for the market to correct itself because he was going to go shopping.

The latter statement appears to be what many super-wealthy collectors have resumed doing in recent months. No less than seven buyers chased the 1932 Picasso painting “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” at Christie’s on the evening of May 4. The $106.5 million price (including buyer’s premium) now marks the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.  Bidding started at $58 million and ended at $95 million, so it’s a clear indication that at least seven people in the world are able and willing to pay a minimum of $58 million for a single artwork.

The abundance of blue-chip artworks available this season sparked global demand. Experts tell me that when rare works like the Picasso, which was from a private collection and had been off the market for 50 years, or the $28.6 million Jasper Johns Flag (from the collection of the late Michael Crichton) come on the block, they will find buyers no matter what the economic backdrop since they are so rare.

The reasoning is that the quality of the work will make the buyer confident in his acquisition, no matter what is going on elsewhere in the art market or in the broader economy. Buying right now seems to be concentrated at the high end of the market where, as one dealer told me, “a relatively small number of international buyers are willing to spend lots of money on a very small number of objects.”

This is why we are seeing a resurgence in the market. Confidence has returned at a rapid rate. Spring sales in the past two weeks were over $1.1 billion, up considerably from the total for last year. Top collectors are fully aware that the best examples of blue-chip art have been snapped up by major museums and important private collections.

The New Equities

Donald Kuspit is the distinguished professor of art history and philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His most recent books are “The End of Art” and “A Critical History of Twentieth Century Art.”

The huge sum of money conferred on a Picasso painting and a Giacometti sculpture accords them great significance — not because they’re major works of modern art, but because they’re very good investments.

Long before the economy almost collapsed a year ago, art-savvy people argued that works of art are the new equities: one can make more money in the art market than in the stock market. The value of Picasso and Giacometti kept increasing while the value of General Motors and General Electric decreased. Stock prices go up and down, but the stock of certain artists keeps going up.

Why? Is it because their works are unique, making them prized possessions, or because they were avant-garde innovators, not to say geniuses? The answer has less to do with the artists’ achievement and more to do with the fact that people are buying the brand name and getting the work along with it.

The name is the high-priced, desirable, one-of-a-kind commodity, not the work, which has a certain incidental relationship to it. This has to do with the celebrity culture: artists have been absorbed into its spectacle. Their creativity has been appropriated by it, making every celebrity seem like a great artist in the making, and every artist a celebrity in the making, aspiring to make spectacular art.

The cult of celebrities among artists has replaced that of heroes. As long ago as 1961, the historian Daniel Boorstin observed, “The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark.” Picasso and Giacometti are avant-garde heroes to art historians; to the market they are big names, amplified by money as well as the media. It is this that gives their art surplus value well beyond its aesthetic value.

A Sound Investment: Cultural Assets

Kathryn Graddy is an associate professor of economics at Brandeis University.

The art market is alive and well. Should we be surprised? Frankly, there are not a lot of other attractive assets out there. Yields on Treasury bonds are at all time lows, the current risk-reward profile of the stock market appears to be less than ideal, and gold prices are at dizzying heights.

The recent record-breaking prices fetched at auction for blue-chip artworks reflect this sentiment. Giacometti’s “Walking Man” and Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” are both well-recognized and lasting creations. Even if many art critics complain that Picasso’s Nude is not one of his best, the painting is still a well-known piece by a famous and innovative artist.

The buyer of this work has invested in an asset that could act as a store of value both in the presence of inflation and general economic uncertainty. This buyer will also receive dividends in the form of enjoyment and recognition — among friends if not the public.

Where is the money coming from? At the time of these art sales, stock prices had risen sharply from a year ago. Many savvy investors have had an exceedingly good year, and the correlation between equity returns and the art market is well documented.

While many people may be in economic distress, the very top echelon of wealthy individuals are doing just fine, and it is this very top fraction of the distribution that drives this end of the art market.

Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust

Philagrafika is an international festival based in Philadelphia that celebrates print in contemporary art. This year it runs January 29th – April 11, 2010

What is this all about?

Involving more than 300 artists at more than 80 venues throughout the city, Philagrafika 2010 will be one of the largest art events in the United States and the world’s most important print-related exposition. Prominent museums and cultural institutions across Philadelphia are participating in Philagrafika 2010, offering regional, national and international audiences the opportunity to see contemporary art that references printmaking in dynamic, unexpected ways and to experience the rich cultural life of the city in the process.  The Philagrafika 2010 festival is the result of more than five years of planning by a group of enthusiastic and committed individuals who have mobilized the entire community around a common interest. The Artistic Director and the members of the curatorial team traveled extensively across the country and across continents, visiting studios, print shops, biennials and other art events in search of artists to include.  And the administrative staff of Philagrafika, the Artistic Director and the curatorial team have worked closely with local institutions in planning and implementing a wide range of exhibitions, public programs and events, resulting in a citywide collective effort, which appropriately reflects the collaborative nature of printmaking itself.

Paul Morrison’s mural for for "Graphic Unconscious" at the Moore College of Art and Design, photograph by Deborah Ripley

Organizers:

Jose Roca, Artistic Director, PHILAGRAFIKA 2010; John Caperton, Curator of Prints & Photographs at The Print Center; Sheryl Conkelton, independent curator; Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Lorie Mertes, Director/Chief Curator of the Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design; Julien Robson, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), co-curators of “The Graphic Unconscious.”

Further reading:

Check out Deborah Ripley’s column ‘Paper Chase’ for the artnet Magazine that reviews some highlights. Ripley explains, “In the introduction to the special guidebook for Philagrafika (an absolute must for visitors, along with the map), Roca argues convincingly that the printmaking process has become key to all kinds of contemporary art, from Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg to Swoon and Guyton\Walker. (Hint: you can leave that magnifying glass that you use to look at the details in etchings at home.) Roca is also fascinated by the human impulse to “leave an imprint,” and “The Graphic Unconscious” explores many innovative ways images can be impressed on wildly divergent surfaces, including human skin and even water.”

New York Times Art Review ‘Philagrafika 2010‘ What is Printmaking Today? Philadelphia Dares to Ask? by Ken Johnson – check out the beautiful shots they captured.

Join the Print Maven this Wednesday at the Lower East Side Printshop Benefit Preview! This is a great opportunity to scope out works that will be on sale at the benefit auction February 24th. If it is your first time to learn, please join us and learn more about the printshop!

Light refreshments will be served.

Laura Vere-Hodge from Christie's poses for photographers between a 1961 Picasso painting (left) and a Jasper Johns painting made between 1960-1966 (right) - photo courtesy Associated Press

LONDON.- Christie’s is honored to announce that it will offer at auction this spring in New York major works from the collection of the late Michael Crichton. Best-selling author and screenwriter, film director and producer, Crichton is renowned for his terrifying and sometimes controversial scientific thrillers such as The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Timeline, The Lost World, Rising Sun, and State of Fear, and for creating the television series ER.

Crichton is also acknowledged as a leading authority on the American artist Jasper Johns. Crichton’s novels have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide; they have been translated into 36 languages, and many have been made into blockbuster movies. He wrote and directed classic films such as The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at Number 1 in television, film, and book sales (with ER, Jurassic Park and Disclosure, respectively).

Johns, Flag (1960-1966) (photograph from Associated Press)

Early in his career, Crichton developed a keen interest in contemporary art and friendships with David Hockney (who made a portrait of Crichton in 1976), Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. In the 1970s, Crichton also became a close friend and an avid collector of Jasper Johns. He was asked by Johns to write the catalogue for his major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1977. This publication and its revised and expanded edition are considered one of the preeminent studies on America’s foremost living artist.
In 2006 Crichton was appointed to the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Crichton was modest about his role as collector, and only his close friends and family were fully aware of the quality and comprehensive range of his collection. “I never really cared whether a particular piece was major or minor, typical or atypical of the artist’s work, or whether the artist was fully or thinly represented in my collection,” Crichton wrote. “I just bought images that I enjoyed looking at, and in the end, that is the only significance that I attach to them. I feel fortunate to have been able to live with the works.”

Picasso's "Femme et Fillettes" (photograph from Associated Press)

“It is a unique opportunity for collectors and institutions to have access to these works from such an extraordinary private collection,” said Brett Gorvy, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s, Americas. “Michael was the rarest breed of collector: a true renaissance man in every sense, whose passion for art was fueled by his search for answers to the basic tenets of art. In the same way Michael challenged accepted scientific dogma, he continually challenged his own understanding of an artist or work of art.He became intimate friends with artists and responded as a creative equal to their own searches and challenges.He was able to assemble an amazing range of rare works, acquired over thirty years with passion and quiet dedication.He collected artists in depth to truly know them. These works were chosen with an intense intellect and instinct, and understood through direct relationships with some of the greatest artists of the 20th century.”

Christie’s will be showcasing four important works from the collection of Michael Crichton as part of the preview exhibition of major Post-War and Contemporary Art to be sold at Christie’s in London next week.The works will be on public view from Saturday 6 February to Friday 12 February. “ While specific estimates will not be set until after the London sales,” stated Brett Gorvy, “the aggregate estimate of the four works will be in the region of GBP 20 million ($30 million).”

“This exhibit in London is an incredible insight into the mind and personal journey that Michael Crichton made as a collector,” says Brett Gorvy. “We will show wonderful works by Picasso, Lichtenstein, Johns and Rauschenberg – artists whom Michael ranked as the greatest of our age.We are thrilled to be exhibiting an extremely rare example of Jasper Johns’ Flag, one of the most famous icons of American art. Johns’ Flags had an enormous impact on artists worldwide. It is an image which literally changed the course of art history.”

The works on view in London will be:

• Jasper Johns, Flag, 1960-1966
• Robert Rauschenberg, Studio Painting (Combine), 1960-1961
• Pablo Picasso, Femme et fillettes (Woman and Children), 1961
• Roy Lichtenstein, Girl in Water, 1965

A spokesperson for the Crichton family states, “Michael was a visionary. He loved art and treasured his relationships with artists. It is a very difficult decision to sell works that have had such a personal place in his world.We are confident that the auctions and exhibitions at Christie’s will commemorate Michael’s eye and deep passion for art.”

Jasper Johns’ Flag
Jasper Johns’ Flag, 1960-66, a painstakingly beautiful rendition of the American flag in encaustic, has never been on the public market. It was acquired by Michael Crichton over thirty years ago directly from the artist’s own collection. It was last seen in public 18 years ago as part of a major Pop Art survey organized originally by the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Jasper Johns’ Flag paintings are credited as the first icons of Pop Art, ending the supremacy of the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, and opening the gates to the everyday consumer images of Warhol and Lichtenstein. “Alongside the Mona Lisa and Warhol’s Marilyn, Jasper Johns’ Flag has become one of the great cultural artifacts of all time,” states Christie’s Brett Gorvy.

The critic Robert Rosenblum wrote of Johns’ Flag paintings: “Is it blasphemous, disrespectful, simple-minded or recondite?”

Jasper Johns recounted to Michael Crichton how he was inspired to paint the Flag pictures as the result of a dream. Crichton wrote,“Johns had a dream in which he saw himself painting a large American flag. Soon after, he did his first one, in encaustic. He recalls thinking: ‘It was something I could do that would be mine’. Paradoxically, in that impersonal image, the young artist found his self-identity.”

Johns told Crichton that “using the design of the American flag ‘took care of a great deal of things for me because I didn’t have to design it. So I went on to similar things like the targets – things the mind already knows.That gave me room to work on other levels… Flags and targets are both things which are seen and not looked at, not examined, and they both have clearly defined areas which could be measured and transferred to canvas.’”

Crichton described further: “the act of painting a flag at this time seemed to many observers an absurdity: an American flag might be many things, but it was certainly not art. Yet Johns presented a carefully worked, elegantly executed painting. Such a painting was surely art – or was it? That became a problem for the viewer, alone. Johns is gone; he has already made the painting, he has already presented the problem.The viewer is left to resolve it as best he can.”

It was this ambiguity and cool detachment that inspired Michael Crichton to want to better understand Johns’ art. He has said of his 1977 Johns catalogue: “I agreed to do it because… Johns was in those days very reclusive and mysterious. I figured if I wrote the catalogue, he would have to answer all my questions.”

Jasper Johns’ Flag is painted in encaustic, a difficult, seldom-used technique that dates back to the Egyptians in which pigment and collage elements such as newspaper are mixed with hot wax and applied to a surface. The fast-setting medium of encaustic enabled Johns to make each brushstroke distinct, while the forty-eight-star, red, white and blue flag design – contiguous with the perimeters of the canvas – provided a structure for the richly varied surface, which ranges from translucent to opaque.

(text from artdaily.com and Christie’s)

Julie Mehretu Dispersion, 2002, ink and acrylic on canvas

Julie Mehretu was on my radar for some time, but I was completely blown away by the exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art in May of 2008,  Julie Mehretu: City Sitings April 19–July 27, 2008.  Here is the Press Release. After this I started paying special attention to her prints.

Rogue Ascension (2002) is an example of how Mehretu takes her interest in space and transforms it from painting to the print technique.

Mehretu, Rogue Ascension, 2002, lithograph in colors

JULIE MEHRETU (B. 1970) 
Rogue Ascension, 
lithograph in colors, 2002, on Somerset and Denril vellum, signed and dated in pencil, the edition was 35 plus 7 artist’s proofs, published by New Museum Limited Editions, New York

Mehretu’s swirling universe composed of explosions, grids and abstracted forms translates into printmaking through the use of lithography. The medium aids Mehretu’s investigation of movement and time through the use of different paper layers. The surface layer is created by printing in different intensities of black on semi transparent paper. Geometric colored forms which constitute the underlayer thus become distorted, challenging the eye to read the subject as simultaneously advancing and receding. The unique quality of the print enables the viewer to physically interact within the created space.

Here are some shots of her working process at High Point Editions on Entropia

Mehretu working at High Point Editions

Printers measuring

Registering

Driving downtown after work one evening I spotted the installation in the building at 200 West Street – this is the biggest project of her career.

This 21 x 85 foot long mural was commissioned during the massive financial crisis of the decade. Mehretu described the task before her as ‘absurd,’ and she wondered ‘can you actually make a picture…of the history of a capitalist development,’ tracing the early maps of the Silk Road to the evolution of the marketplace as it occurs today? I find this to be a perfect example of how artists are able to articulate the history and moment of 2009 perfectly.

Watch a video of Mehretu on the Crown Point Press website or her interviewed by the PBS series ART: 21

Another cultural casualty of the recession, artonpaper magazine just announced it has temporarily ceased publication.

“ART ON PAPER is an international magazine that presents award-winning coverage of artists working in a range of paper-based media, including limited-edition prints, drawings, photographs, books, and ephemera. Published bi-monthly (6 times per year), artonpaper is available via subscriptions worldwide or at bookstores throughout North America and Western Europe.

artonpaper was founded exactly 40 years ago by Paul Cummings as the Print Collector’s Newsletter. A year later, it was acquired by Jacqueline Brody (1970-96), then published by Gabriella Fanning (1996-2004), who changed it from a newsletter to a glossy art magazine. When the title folded in 2004, we rescued it, buying it for very little money. We spent the next five years rebuilding it. We strengthened the magazine’s international coverage of contemporary editions, multiples, artist’s books, and ephemera, and dropped its coverage of Old Master Drawing and prints.”

Valdés, Chiara, 2003, 20/50, etching with color collage

I was so excited to come home yesterday and have my framed Manolo Valdés etching waiting for me! I first saw this work at the IFPDA Print Fair in November, thought about it, a lot, and then saw it again in Miami at the Ink fair. Inspired by the warm weather, abundance of great art and a fabulous group of art loving friends to bounce ideas off of, I took the plunge and bought the work. I haven’t regretted it for a second, and after I hung it last night I just sat and stared at it, for a long time.

Does anyone look at Kevin Sharkey’s blog about renovating his apartment? He does these great instructional before and after photo montages, so here is my before and after!

Before

Manolo Valdés, Chiara, 2003, etching with unique color collage

Big thanks to Emily Klasson from Marlborough Graphics Gallery, so helpful!

Biography:

General

• The artist lives and works in New York, New York.
• 1942 Born in Valencia, Spain, on March 8th
• 1957 Entered the Fine Arts School – San Carlos of Valencia, Spain; left in 1958 to devote his life to painting
• 1964 Valdés formed the group “Equipo Crónica” with Joan A. Toledo and Rafael Solbes; Toledo left the group after a year but Valdés and Solbes continued their association with “Equipo Crónica” until the death of Solbes in 1981
• 1965 – 1981 Through “Equipo Crónica,” Manolo Valdés participated in over sixty solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions

Awards

• 2007 Officier de L’Ordre National du Mérite, President of the French Republic, Paris, France
• 2006 Doctor Honoris Causa from the University Miguel Hernández, University Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain
• 2006 Premio Archival España 2005, Archival, Madrid, Spain
• 2005 Chevalier de l´Ordre du Mérite Culturel, Ordonnance Souveraine, Monte Carlo, Monaco
• 2004 Premio Valenciano del siglo XXI, LAS PROVINCIAS Multimedia, Valencia, Spain
• 2002 Premio Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte de Estampa, Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte, Madrid, Spain
• 2000 Premio Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte ARCO, Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte, Madrid, Spain
• 2000 Premio Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte para Estampa, Asociación Española de Criticos de Arte, Madrid, Spain
• 1999 Representative for Spain at La Esposizione Internacional d’Art, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
• 1998 La Medalla de Oro de Mérito en Las Bellas Artes, Ministerio de Cultura de España, Madrid, Spain
• 1997 XXXIIème Prix du Conseil National, La Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco
• 1993 Condecoración de la Orden de Andrés Bello en la Clase de Banda Honor, Congreso de la República de Venezuela, Caracas, Republic of Venezuela
• 1986 Medal of the Biennial, International Festival of the Plastic Arts, Baghdad, Iraq
• 1986 Medal of the Biennial, Seoul International Center for Film and Art, Seoul Olympic Games, South Korea
• 1985 La Medalla Nacional de Bellas Artes, Spain National Medal for Painting, Fine Arts, Spain
• 1979 Silver Medal, 2nd International Biennial of Prints, Tokyo, Japan
• 1979 The Bridgestone Museum of Art Prize, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Lisbon, Portugal
• 1965 Premio Biella, Comune di Biella, Milan, Italy
• 1965 Premio Lissone, Comune di Lissone, Milan, Italy

Deborah Ripley, artnet Online Auction’s head Print Specialist and print world guru had recommended the Johns exhibition at the National Gallery of Art to me, so when I found myself in DC this weekend, I had to go. Wow, was I floored. The exhibition, titled Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns (running October 11, 2009–April 4, 2010) is true to it’s name. There are approximately 45 proofs for lithographs, etchings and screenprints all with hand painting, pastel, or ink additions with notes in the margins.

False Start I 1962 lithograph, working proof with pastel, pencil, and ink

After Holbein 1993 lithograph, working proof with crayon

Located in the East Building on the Ground Floor, the space is organized using two galleries, which allows for a clear division between 4 decades of work. The 1960s and 1970s fill the first gallery, with motifs that will be associated with Johns’ art throughout the course of his career. These include his use of the alphabet, targets and the body (specifically hand prints and profiles). The second gallery, with work from the 1980s and 1990s, introduces his inclusion of family photographs and art objects owned by Johns. His ‘After Holbein’ particularly caught my attention (and as an aside, I can’t help but love the Renaissance references contemporary artists’ are using, think Mánolo Valdez).

I was personally entranced by the tactility of the colors and volumes. Johns’ paintings and three-dimensional objects (the paint a combination of oil and encaustic) obviously have a physical viscosity that is difficult to achieve on a two-dimensional plane of paper. This is not altogether lost as he experimented with printmaking. I was especially drawn to the layering of colors and techniques, stripes, dots, squiggles and lines.

A majority of the works were done at ULAE (please see earlier post) and it was great to see some beautiful examples from this revolutionary print studio.

This is an incredible opportunity to really discover the artist’s working process, and discern the changes and choices an artist makes before publishing a final edition. For those not lucky enough to witness the artist in the print studio, this exhibition is a way to have an ‘insiders’ understanding of the printmaking process. So much of what is traditionally seen is the ‘finished product’ but in today’s medium-limitless world, without an understanding of the process, so much depth and understanding is lost.

A special note at the bottom of the Press Release reads: The works are selected from a collection of approximately 1,700 proofs for Johns’ prints that he has maintained and carefully annotated over four decades. This extraordinary body of work is being acquired by the National Gallery of Art for its permanent collection. Very exciting for the NGA.

Ocean 1996 lithograph, working proof with ink

My 9 month old niece loved it!