Steve Martin
Funny man and art collector, Steve Martin has signed a deal with Grand Central Publishing to write Woman, One, a novel which “examines the glamour and the subterfuge of the fine art world” in New York. The book will be released in November 2010.
JoAnn my know all of the book world (and print collector herself!) gave me this tip. THANK YOU, I can’t wait for it to come out!
Tatyana and Maurice Grosman
To continue my discussion of lithography in American print making, Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) first comes to mind. Established in 1957 by Tatyana Grosman, today ULAE is a fine art print publisher that continues to collaborate with artists to publish small edition prints and artist’s books.
Mrs. Grosman, born in Ekaterinburg, Russia settled in New York with her husband Maurice in 1955. She decided that she would publish illustrated books using the French tradition of livres d’artistes in America. She began collaborating with artists to create original prints. The Grosmans began seeking young talented artists including Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell. They traveled to galleries and museums, interested in emerging artists Mrs. Grosman wrote to Jasper Johns in 1960 and invited him to make prints. At Johns’ suggestion, the Grosmans met Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Cy Twombly, James Rosenquist, Edwin Schlossberg, Buckminster Fuller and Barnett Newman.
Monhegan Island, Maine
I think January is really inspiring me to think about July. Only 5 months away.
If you haven’t been so lucky as to take the ferry out to Monhegan Island (about 15 miles from Port Clyde Harbor) I would highly recommend it. Whether you enjoy hiking, eating, or beach combing, the most important and interesting activity is to visit the artists’ studios that dapple the mountainous island. On a sunny day you can often spot artists working ‘en plein air’ -bringing their easel and canvas outside. Is that Jamie Wyeth? He has a home on a rocky bluff near a shipwreck (you can’t make this up!). Many of the studios double as homes and galleries; you can bring a painting or print home to always remember this special place.
Baldessari, I will not make anymore boring art, 1971, lithograph
This just struck a chord on a grey Friday in January.
Happy weekend!
Rosenquist, Hitchhiker-Speed of Light, 1999
In it’s most basic sense, lithography is a technique in which the print is made by using a press to transfer an image created on stone or a metal plate to paper. Lithographs differ from etchings, engravings, serigraphs, and woodcuts in materials and process. As opposed to many other print processes that depend upon incised or carved lines, lithography is a planographic process that depends upon the aversion of grease and water.
To make a lithograph, the artist first draws an image, in reverse, on a fine-grained limestone or aluminum plate. For a one-color lithograph, this will be the only drawing. Each additional color will generally require a separate stone or plate.
Artists use the same kinds of tools they would for images on paper or canvas. However, since the basic principle of hand lithographic printing is the natural repulsion of grease and water, the crayons, pencils, and washes used in lithography have a high grease content.
MoMA Print Study Room
The best way to learn about prints and understand the characteristics and visual qualities of the different techniques is through close study of original works. One way to see extremely high quality works in excellent condition is at print study rooms or libraries. Living in New York, I’m incredibly lucky to have some of the best study centers. Specifically, I have enjoyed going to the New York Public Library Print Room, The Metropolitan Museum Print Room and the Museum of Modern Art Print Room. All these study rooms are open to the public. Make an appointment a few weeks ahead to tell them what you would specifically enjoy seeing. A curator or print room associate will supply you with the appropriate protection for the vulnerable works on paper (white gloves, pencil, and paper) and will often stay with you in order to help you move the sheets and keep all of the materials in archival order.
Totally inspired after a New Year’s holiday in Mexico I couldn’t help but think about the printmaker Rufino Tamayo.
Rufino Tamayo (August 25, 1899 – June 24, 1991) was born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Experimenting with Cubism, Impressionism and Fauvism, Tamayo incorporated these popular art movements of the time with his distinctly Mexican iconography. Following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Tamayo resolved to exclusively develop what he believed was a traditional Mexican identity. Refusing to follow a more political trend of his contemporaries (Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros), Tamayo was excluded and chastised, seen as a “traitor” in his artistic circle. He decided to leave Mexico in 1926, bound for New York.
Opening Reception: January 14, 6-8pm
International Print Center New York presents New Prints 2010/Winter in its gallery at 526 West 26th Street, Room 824, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea. On view from January 12 through February 20, the show consists of fifty-four works by thirty-eight emerging to established artists, and one collective, selected from a pool of approximately 1,200 submissions. A reception will be held at IPCNY on January 14, from 6-8 pm.
The Selections Committee for New Prints 2010/Winter included Alexander Campos, Executive Director, The Center for Book Arts; Michele Oka Doner, Artist; Kathleen Flynn, Executive Director, Dieu Donné; Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Curatorial Team, Philagrafika 2010; Dwight E. Lee, Collector; and Leslie Miller, Founder, The Grenfell Press.
New Prints 2010/Winter is the thirty-third presentation of IPCNY’s New Prints Program, a series of juried exhibitions organized by IPCNY four times each year, featuring prints made within the past twelve months by artists at all stages of their careers. The exhibition represents a cross-section of some of the most exceptional printmaking today while continuing IPCNY’s commitment to provide an ongoing exhibition venue for contemporary prints and a major source of information about artists working in the medium.
New Prints 2010/Winter is the fiftieth exhibition presented by IPCNY in its Chelsea space since the opening of the gallery in September, 2000.
![image_large_1039[1]](http://www.theprintmaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/image_large_10391.jpg "Baldessari")
♦ The first definitive study of print work of this prolific artist’s career that has spanned nearly forty years
♦ Highly anticipated by collectors and academics alike, this publication features recently completed work that has never been published to coincide with the retrospective of his work that will be shown internationally from 2009-2011
♦ Baldessari’s artwork has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions and more than 900 group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe
John Baldessari, conceptual artist and teacher, has lived and worked in California all his life. Considered a pioneer of postmodern ideas in the 1970s, he came to prominence with his early text paintings and moved on to photographic images paired with text. His projects include artist books, videos, films, billboards, and public works.
He has maintained his interest in the relationship of words and imagery, of delighting in the absurd, and pointing out the irony in contemporary art theory for more than 35 years. Baldessari has been active as a printmaker since 1970; John Baldessari, A Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Multiples 1971 –2007 marks the first comprehensive accounting of this tremendous body of work and the influence this artist has had on the international art world.
(Text provided by Hudson Hills Press)
Exhibition Details:
John Baldessari: Making Worlds
curated by Daniel Birnbaum
53rd Venice Biennale of Art, Venice, Italy
June 7 – November 22, 2009
At the Venice Biennale of of Art this year Baldassari will also receive the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement
Cheese
I promise not to stray from prints too often, but I just couldn’t resist these beautiful images (and my love/obsession) with cheese.
All Photos + Styling by Karen Mordechai Styling Assistant: Lizzy Sall
Happy Long Weekend!