From left: Richard Klein, Jessica Stockholder, and Gary Lichtenstein at Gary Lichtenstein Editions. Courtesy Gary Lichtenstein Editions.
Following on the April post for this column, which explored recent works in print-based installation, this month’s Ink takes an in-depth look at Art21 artist Jessica Stockholder’s current project for The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Printmaking — specifically screenprinting – plays a unique and significant role in the final work, titled Hollow Places Court in Ash-Tree Wood. To create this installation, Stockholder collaborated with master printer Gary Lichtenstein of Gary Lichtenstein Editions and furniture-maker Clifford Moran to transform rough-hewn planks of ash wood.
In a break from standard nomenclature, Stockholder refers to Hollow Places Court in Ash-Tree Wood as a “situation” – a term she uses to describe a built environment comprised of pre-composed elements that she places in response to the unique features of a specific space. The artist prefers this word to “installation,” which she finds somewhat overused and generic. It is also meant to differentiate between other discrete approaches in her work, namely her site-specific installations, in which she composes diverse found objects and materials on site (also in response to the space at hand) and her studio works, which are self-contained objects.
The seed for this project began in 2009, when the Aldrich was forced to cut a large centenarian ash tree that stood in its sculpture garden due to infestation from the emerald ash borer, an invasive Asian beetle. Thinking that it would receive new life in the hands of a contemporary artist, the museum sent the tree to a mill and stored the planks to cure for future use. In a recent conversation, exhibition curator and Interim Co-Director of the museum Richard Klein related that the idea of offering the planks to Stockholder – who has worked primarily with man-made and mass produced materials in the past – came about when he was speaking with her about doing an installation at the Aldrich. He mentioned the incident with the ash tree to her as an aside and was pleasantly surprised to learn that she had a deep connection with trees and wood due to her experience growing up in the Pacific Northwest Coast. She spoke of the lush rainforest surroundings populated with old-growth trees and her first memories of sculptures: wood-carved totem poles created by the indigenous peoples of the area. Though the staff at the museum had originally thought to give the wood to an artist known for working with the material, Klein realized that it might be more interesting to see what an artist like Stockholder would do with the planks.
Stockholder, who has recently been drawn to opportunities that present unusual and new circumstances which allow her to stretch her artistic practice (see, for example, two recent exhibitions: Flooded Chambers Maid, Madison Square Park; and The Jewel Thief, Tang Museum and Sculpture Garden), was greatly intrigued and quickly provided a proposal to Klein. In Stockholder’s words, the project is a meditation on the nature of “picture-making and seeing.” It incorporates a repeating eye-like motif, which suggests to the process of looking and what Stockholder calls the “frame of the eye,” or the perspective from which we view the world, which is echoed by the windows of the museum gallery that “frame” the sculpture garden, where the tree once stood. The eye concept was also inspired by the prominent use of eyes in the wood carvings of First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The result is a provocative intersection of Stockholder’s two-dimensional and three-dimensional modes of working, which she characterizes as “creating fiction” and “a response to the mundane, matter-of-fact quality of objects,” respectively.
Diane Victor (South African, born 1964), “Fading Man I,” 2010. Intaglio. Plate: 20”x16”. Publisher and printer: Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT. Edition 25. Courtesy Center for Contemporary Printmaking. © 2011 Diane Victor.
As interest in William Kentridge’s work has grown over the past decade, so has interest in South African art as a whole. Printmaking is a central component of the cultural landscape in this country and it is an important form of expression for many of its artists. In general, South African printmaking is characterized by political and emotional honesty and a refreshing fidelity to the technical roots of the medium. Kentridge, of course, is a prolific printmaker (see the November 2010 post of this column), as are Conrad Botes, Norman Catherine, Robert Hodgins, Anton Kannemeyer, Cameron Platter, Claudette Schreuders, Diane Victor, and Ernestine White, to name a few. The work of these and other artists, who are well known in their homeland, have begun to garner increased attention in the U.S. recently, appearing in art fairs and featured in solo exhibitions at major galleries and museums.
Several exhibitions this year have introduced a wider American audience to the vital printmaking scene in South Africa. Most visible and comprehensive among these is Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now, a group exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art on view through August 14. Earlier this spring, Boston University hosted dual exhibitions in honor of the 25th anniversary of Caversham Press, the first professional printmaking workshop in South Africa. At the same time, the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, launched the first major solo exhibition of Diane Victor’s work in this country – an auspicious introduction to this important artist who is becoming better known to an international audience. In March and early April, David Krut Projects mounted “Contemporary South African Prints: DKW and I-Jusi,” a retrospective of I-Jusi magazine (an underground art ‘zine dedicated to South African identity and politics, founded in 1994), and David Krut Workshop, a professional printmaking studio established in Johannesburg in 2002. Later this fall, Jack Shainman Gallery will host a solo exhibition of Anton Kannemeyer’s work.
The MoMA exhibition now on view provides “a representative, quality cross-section of contemporary printmaking activities in South Africa over the last five decades,” as described by exhibition curator Judith Hecker, Assistant Curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books in a recent e-mail interview with the author. Drawn from the museum’s collection, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue provide critical insight to role of printmaking in South African culture and politics, presented in terms of the country’s recent massive political changes from an apartheid-ruled state to an evolving democracy. In addition to a scholarly essay by Hecker, the accompanying catalogue provides further information and bibliographic citations on each of the artists, collectives, organizations, and workshops represented. It also includes contextualizing photographs and a timeline of printmaking, cultural, and political events.
The exhibition was inspired by Hecker’s previous work with William Kentridge’s prints (she contributed to the recent traveling exhibition William Kentridge: Five Themes and authored a related publication titled William Kentridge: Trace; Prints from the Museum of Modern Art) and prompted by a curatorial initiative to “expand the museum’s holdings to better represent the breadth of printmaking activities in South Africa” (Hecker in a recent e-mail interview with the author). The first South African artist to enter the print collection was Azaria Mbatha in 1967 but he was the sole representative until the department began to acquire Kentridge’s work in earnest in the 1990s. Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now (and the museum’s holdings) were developed over a period of six years; in preparation, Hecker traveled to South Africa for extended periods in 2004 and 2007. As noted in her introduction, this is not the first scholarly examination of the topic (preceded by Printmaking in a Transforming South Africa, 1997, and Rorke’s Drift: Empowering Prints; Twenty Years of Printmaking in South Africa, 2004, both by Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin). However, it is the first to be made widely available to a U.S. and international audience, by virtue of MoMA’s visitorship and following.
The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are divided into five categories, four of which are technique-based – the final category, Postapartheid: New Directions, shows the openness and experimentation that characterizes recent print production. Due to the nature of the exhibition, artists are generally represented by only one or a handful of works – therefore, it is best understood as a starting point for exploration. In Hecker’s words, “The show, and our holdings, do not aim to be complete or definitive… it reflects a work in progress; we plan to continue to acquire works by South African artists” (e-mail interview).
The first section focuses on the favored status of linocut amongst South African artists, a tradition that began during apartheid. As discussed by Hecker, its ease of use, affordability, and accessibility made it a natural choice for the community workshops and non-profit art schools that served black artists, who were attracted to its stark graphic power. Early practitioners included Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Dan Rkogoathe, and Charles Nkosi, many of whom were involved in the Black Consciousness Movement founded by Steve Biko. Their work centered around “themes of ancestry, religion, and liberation” (Hecker, Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now [New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011], 12).
In the early 1990s, the country moved through intense political protest and international political pressure into a peaceable – though contentious – conversion to a democratic nation. Meeting of Two Cultures (1993), a linocut by Sandile Goje, summarizes the spirit of reconciliation that characterized this period. The image shows two biomorphic homes shaking hands: the structure on the left is in the style of the Xhosa people (who were the original inhabitants of the area), at right is a home characteristic of the European ruling class. The linocut section of the exhibition also includes recent prints of stunning technical achievement by William Kentridge, Vuyile C. Voyiya, Cameron Platter, and others. These are less intensely political in their subject matter, though still grounded in the recent history of the nation.
Ink | The Lexicon of Tomorrow: Print-Based Installation
Nicola López, "Closed System," 2009. Installation view, “Next Wave Festival,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2009. © Nicola López. Image courtesy the artist.
With the onset of spring, renewal is in the air. In the world of contemporary prints, a fresh format that seems to be popping up everywhere is print-based installation. In recent years, celebrated contemporary artists Swoon, Nicola López, Ryan McGinness, and others have pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking techniques to create unique works that have the power, presence, and conceptual rigor of work in traditionally associated with “high-brow” media.
Like most new trends in art, printstallation has important precedents. Monumental prints have been created since the Renaissance, primarily to commemorate military victories: Dürer’s Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I (1515-17) and Andreani’s The Triumph of Julius Caesar (after paintings by Mantegna, 1599) are two famed early examples – Jacques Callot also etched a number of oversized battle scenes in the early Seventeenth Century. Yet few artists attempted to work on this scale in prints again until the Postwar period, when Andy Warhol created his famous Cow Wallpaper in 1966 (currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building – a later variant in blue and yellow is also on view on the fourth floor mezzanine).
Nancy Spero, "Torture of Women," panel 10 (detail), 1976. Handprinting and typewriter collage on paper, 14 panels totaling 1 2/3 x 125 feet. Photo by David Reynolds. © Nancy Spero, courtesy the artist’s estate and Galerie Lelong, New York.
Over the past four decades, other major artists made headway into using printmaking as a basis for installation, including Robert Rauschenberg, Xu Bing, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Vito Acconci, Peter Halley, and Kiki Smith (some examples can be seen in Deborah Wye, et al. Artists and Prints: Masterworks from the Museum of Modern Art, 2004). However, Nancy Spero (1926-2009) contributed most significantly to the development of the potential of print-based media as a vehicle for installation work. As discussed in Christopher Lyon’s recent critical survey (Nancy Spero: The Work, Prestel, 2010, 186-192), Spero developed her signature large hand-printed works on paper in the early 1970s in response to her struggle with Rheumatoid arthritis. The disease prevented her from painting and drawing on the level she had previously, and she discovered that printmaking media allowed her to continue to work on the scale and production level she desired. Spero eventually developed a lexicon of over 450 stock letterpress plates based on her drawings, which she used in combination with letterpress typeface to create tableaux of interwoven images and text. Though early work was invariably on paper, over time she began to print on other surfaces and incorporate additional materials into her installations. All of Spero’s work is unique and hand-printed – for installations, she mounted the paper on the wall in panoramic or floor-to-ceiling banners. Her uniquely expressionistic and simple figures – which convey pain, mystical power, and monstrosity – are frequently surrounded by text in French, Latin, or English (some borrowed, some of her own creation). Spero combined these elements to expose the cruelty of political oppression, war, and violence against women – subjects to which she was dedicated throughout her career.
Ink | A Print World Compendium: IPCNY Celebrates Ten Years
Enrique Chagoya, “Return to Goya No. 9,” 2010. Intaglio with letterpress in two colors on Revere Ivory. Plate: 8 ½ x 6 in.; Sheet: 14 5/8 x 11 in. Published by Universal Limited Art Editions, Bay Shore, NY, as a Benefit for IPCNY. © Enrique Chagoya/Universal Limited Art Editions, 2010.
In 1995, a group of print-world professionals and collectors based in New York joined forces to establish a non-profit organization that would be “dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the fine art print.” In its early years, the International Print Center New York (IPCNY) did not yet have a gallery presence or public location, but maintained a website and organized member events and fundraising auctions. The fall of 2000 marked the auspicious beginning of IPCNY’s public exhibitions and permanent gallery, with two simultaneous shows in New York. The first, titled New Prints 2000, opened September 20 of that year and inaugurated IPCNY’s gallery on West 26th Street. The second was a satellite exhibition at AXA’s midtown galleries titled Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process, which opened November 2. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue written by guest curators Elizabeth Wyckoff and David Platzker and was a dazzling survey of some of the greatest achievements in the medium throughout history. In a recent conversation, founding and current Director Anne Coffin explained that Hard Pressed was intended to demonstrate the “range and ambition” of IPCNY’s interests. Grace Glueck of The New York Times declared it “nothing short of a banquet for the eye.”
In the ten years since, IPCNY has organized over 50 exhibitions, primarily highlighting new editions. Many are offered as part of its touring program, which caters to other non-profit institutions. Coffin explained that IPCNY’s exhibition program was conceived to “fill a niche” between traditional museum and gallery exhibitions and “provide an alternative for emerging artists across the country whose work would not be seen otherwise.” In addition to its quarterly New Prints exhibitions (juried shows that showcase editions completed in the previous 12 months), IPCNY has also organized numerous special exhibitions. In tune with the New Prints program, these exhibitions often explore topics that may not receive attention elsewhere, such as the recent Seeing God in Prints: Indian Lithographs from the Collection of Mark Baron and Elise Boisanté, which traveled to Wellesley College last year; and Wallworks: Contemporary Pictorial Wallpapers, which will be on view March 9 – April 1 at the Museum of Fine Arts at Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.
Victoria Burge, "Montana Night," 2010. Photopolymer intaglio, edition of 10, 17 ½ x 21 inches. Printed and published by the artist (in New Prints 2010/Autumn, organized by IPCNY and currently on view at the University of Texas at Austin). Image courtesy IPCNY, New York.
This season, IPCNY is celebrating its tenth year on 26th street with a new space a few doors down (508 W. 26th #5A) and a roster of special exhibitions and benefit programs. This year’s opening exhibition, Emerging Images: The Creative Process in Prints (curated by Wendy Weitman), was a tightly-curated group of progressive proofs and multiple states of works by 16 artists ranging from Arthur Wesley Dow to E.V. Day, highlighting the unique creative possibilities provided by the medium due its serial nature. The following exhibition, New Prints 2010/Autumn – 43 works by emerging and established artists – was shown at IPCNY in October and November and is now on view through March 12 at the Visual Arts Center in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, in conjunction with its Printmaking Convergence program.
Ink | “Remembering so as not to forget the past is still not over”: Selected Meditations on Black History
Kerry James Marshall. "Memento," 1996. Color lithograph with gold powder on soft white Somerset. 30 x 44 in. Edition of 33, Printed and published by Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
In celebration of National African American History month, this issue of Ink is focused on selected prints by Art21 artists that react to and re-interpret African-American history. Ellen Gallagher, Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, and Fred Wilson are deeply engaged with this topic in all of their chosen media, including prints, bringing past events and practices to the forefront in order to provoke thought on the present and future state of race relations and Black identity in this country.
Ellen Gallagher’s groundbreaking DeLuxe portfolio (a detail of which is the signature image for this blog, below), 2004-2005, remains one of the most sensational and influential editioned works to have been published in the past decade. The portfolio, a series of 60 multimedia prints in an edition of 20, is part of a larger body of work in which she re-purposed and transformed advertisements for beauty products and vocational schools aimed at African-Americans (primarily women) from vintage magazines, cutting out the eyes, hair, and other details of the models and replacing selected areas with collaged elements, then arranged the results into dizzying grid patterns that consume the viewer’s field of vision. This series of unique and editioned works had a deep impact on the cultural landscape and instigated renewed dialogue on race issues and ideals of beauty. In addition, the DeLuxe prints were a great feat of technical achievement.
Many of Gallagher’s works from this period heavily incorporate or focus entirely on wig advertisements, and DeLuxe includes several such images. Commenting on her “wig ladies” in the April 2004 issue of Artforum, the artist reflected:
the wigs admit an anxiety about identity and loss: they map integration, the civil rights movement right through to Vietnam and women’s rights…These women are not just trying to be beautiful: they had to have these prosthetics. It’s about what you needed to go out the door, like you weren’t even reasonable until you put these on.
Gallagher has also examined the use of exaggerated eyes and lips in racial caricatures, isolating and repeating them endlessly in a kind of visual babble that underscores their absurdity. She thoroughly explored this idea in her first portfolio of prints, Ssblak!Ssblak!!Ssblakallblak! Wonder #9, 2000.
Ink | Parts of a Whole: John Baldessari’s Prints
John Baldessari, "Hegel's Cellar: Two Boats," 1986. Photogravure, aquatint. 19.5 x 26.5 inches. Publisher: Marian Goodman Multiples, edition of 35. Courtesy John Baldessari and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
Over the past couple of years, the art world has been ebulliently celebrating the work of conceptualist John Baldessari – a well deserved paean to this highly influential and groundbreaking artist. To begin, he was given the Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale. John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, a retrospective exhibition organized by the Tate Modern and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, opened in London last October and is now in its final days at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 9. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue (Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2009) summarize the artist’s career from the early 1960s with a focus on unique works (as well as several important artist’s books from the 1970s). A complementary touring exhibition and catalogue of his prints, John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, has traveled to a handful of venues across the country and will be on view February 26 – June 26, 2011 at the Palm Springs Art Museum and February 4 – May 13, 2012 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. In addition to the aforementioned exhibition catalogues, The Prints of John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonne 1971–2007 by Sharon Coplan Hurowitz and Wendy Weitman (Hudson Hills Press LLC, October 2009) carefully documents, beautifully illustrates, and insightfully discusses his multiples on paper (with the exception of artist’s books). His work will also be featured in the upcoming Sydney Festival, January 8-30, Sydney, Australia. Several galleries showed his work this past fall as well: Marian Goodman and Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl in New York; 1301PE Gallery in Los Angeles; and Fondazione Prada in Milan. In the media, Baldessari was profiled in the October 18, 2010 issue of the New Yorker (“No More Boring Art” by Calvin Tomkins); featured in the Systems episode in the 2009 season 5 of the Art:21 documentary series; the subject of an a documentary on the Tate Channel; and discussed in several other articles and reviews too numerous to mention.
Add to this abundance this current post, which is naturally focused on Baldessari’s prints. In his own words, “Fingerprints and footprints can be repeated, and that’s why I make prints endlessly” (Hurowitz and Weitman, opening page). Quips aside, Baldessari has created a formidable body of editions and artist’s books (in addition to documenting his own footprints) in his lifetime – what he refers to as his “cheap line.” Yet Baldessari’s irreverent and playful prints require an intellectual workout as rigorous as any other medium in which he chooses to work. A self-described “failed writer” who “builds with images the way a writer builds with words” (public interview with David Salle at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 20, 2010), Baldessari’s work is concerned with the idea of visual information as signifier and a means of communication, combining stock imagery, colors, and text to create intricate and taut visual puzzles. His aim is to create enough “tension” between found images in order to illicit questions and curiosity. He has often spoken of the esteem he has for his viewers, who he describes as “tremendously sophisticated. I don’t think you need to pander to an audience, but once they’re looking then the question becomes how to hold their attention” (Tate Channel online documentary).
Ink | Notes from Underground: William Powhida
William Powhida, "Unconscious Collaboration (number 1)," 2008, edition of 75. Screenprint and digital inkjet with collage, image: 11 1/2 x 19 3/4 in., sheet: 22 x 30 in. Courtesy Lower East Side Printshop, New York.
The contemporary art fair Art Basel Miami Beach takes place this week, bringing with it a flurry of activity. In the spirit of participation, Ink is dedicated this month to the prints of William Powhida, a Brooklyn-based artist whose work lays bare the inner workings of the contemporary art world (in fact, his current project is taking place in Miami, see below). A reluctant yet active insider, he offers his frank, unadorned view of the contemporary art world’s mostly uncharted territory. His text-based work is peppered with strong terms, ribald satire, and ironic self-aggrandizement (his Tumblr blog page is titled G-E-N-I-U-S). In an interview with the artist, when speaking of his work, Powhida describes two distinct strands – the “overtly comedic [that is] topical in the sense that it is reactive to what is going on” and the “imaginary universe where anything can be made to happen.” He is simultaneously celebrated and reviled by the art world players he exposes, and his work can precipitate a formidable storm under the right conditions.
In addition to working in traditional art-object formats (drawing, painting, prints), Powhida maintains a strong presence in cyberspace. He has the requisite artist’s website, but he is also a veteran blogger, tumblr-er, tweeter, and commentator. In addition, he frequently participates in and organizes public discussions and events. Earlier this year Powhida collaborated with Jennifer Dalton on a month-long series of events and discussions at Winkleman Gallery that were open to all. The project, titled #Class, was designed to question the systems and hierarchies that attach monetary value to art. Events were documented in real time with twitter feeds, blog posts, and live streaming video. The two pair up again this week with a similar project titled #Rank to probe the hierarchies that dictate one’s place in the culture of the contemporary art fair, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. #Rank takes place through December 4 at Seven, a nearby venue, and will be documented in real time on the project website.
Powhida’s two-dimensional works are primarily text-heavy drawings in the form of lists, satirical faux-articles and editorials, or caricatures of the art-world figures he skewers, surrounded by commentary. He has produced a handful of original prints in the same vein. His first – Lower East Side Printshop’s 2008 mystery benefit edition titled Unconscious Collaboration (number 1)–was parody of an article from the defunct magazine Art on Paper, titled Unusual Appropriation: Making Something Out of Nothing. The opening line reads, “Brooklyn based [sic] artist William Powhida has gained notoriety for making art about a pompous, self-absorbed genius also named William Powhida, a fictional character loosely based on the artist’s experiences.” The text goes on to describe an imagined series of events surrounding Powhida’s process of creating the mystery print edition in which he is overwhelmed by the task, frequently leaves the studio to frequent bars and strip clubs, and eventually fails to deliver an original print, instead signing the work of another artist. The illustrations for the article show Powhida in various states of inaction at LESP with appropriate captions – “Powhida in repose” (passed out on the floor), “doing something in the Printshop” (dabbling with inks), and “doing something at the window” (gazing outside, hand on his head).
Ink | Thinking Aloud: The Prints of William Kentridge
William Kentridge, "Learning the Flute," 2004. Letterpress on 110 sheets of Arches Johannot, edition of 18 (another 18 impressions were printed on disbound pages of Chambers’ Encyclopaedia, 1950, of the same size). Assembled overall: 9’ 3” x 11’ 7 ½” (281.5 x 354.6 cm). Published by Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. Courtesy David Krut Projects, New York.
William Kentridge, "Learning the Flute" (reverse), 2004. Photolithograph on 110 sheets of Arches Johannot, edition of 18 (another 18 were printed on disbound pages of Chambers’ Encyclopaedia, 1950, of the same size). Assembled overall: 9’ 3” x 11’ 7 ½” (281.5 x 354.6 cm). Published by Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. Courtesy David Krut Projects, New York.
The recent release of William Kentridge: Anything is Possible invites exploration of the artist’s significant body of prints, which currently numbers over 400. A natural match for his artistic philosophy and political subject matter, printmaking has always been a significant means of expression for Kentridge. His virtuosity in printmaking is apparent in the impressive variety of approaches he has employed, each of which contributes to an extremely rich body of work that invites dedicated attention.
As demonstrated in the recent exhibition and catalogue William Kentridge: Five Themes,1 much of Kentridge’s work has been guided by motifs that he explores in a variety of formats, from theater to drawing to animated film and, of course, printmaking. Myth, political history, literature, the performing arts, and cultural artifacts are a few of sources that inspire Kentridge’s investigations into the nature of being human and “the persistence and robustness of contradiction.” 2
Kentridge’s working process requires space for uncertainty and exploration, a fertile condition under which “ideas and images emerge.” 3 In interviews, he places a great deal of emphasis on the necessity of working with his hands in order to think, which accounts for his preference for drawing-based media. In explaining his unique style, Kentridge speaks of visual knowledge as inherently flawed, in that we only see the present situation at any given moment; the history of what has come before and any underlying issues are lost. 4 This sensibility informs his technique of layering and revision, resulting in complex compositions that convey a sense of the passage of time and a richness of ideas not possible in a single image. In a similar vein, Kentridge frequently uses the word “provisional” to discuss the nature of mark-making, connecting the temporality of a drawn line to the constant change that has become a fixture of modern life.
Ink: New Transparency for the Tamarind Institute
Ellen Gallagher, "Wiglette" (detail) from "DeLuxe," 2004/2005. Photogravure and plasticine sheet: 13 x 10 inches. Image courtesy the artist and Two Palms Press.
Printmaking is a vital and significant aspect of contemporary art, yet there is currently very little discussion or media coverage of this medium in the press. When Art on Paper announced that it would cease publication earlier this year, a world of artists, professionals, aficionados, occasional perusers and curious newcomers were left with no dedicated source for information on contemporary prints. While this column cannot begin to fill such a void, I hope it will provide a starting point for discussion and exploration.
My love of prints began over 15 years ago, when I was an undergraduate studio major at the University of Iowa. Since then, I’ve changed focus a few times from being an artist to a museum curator, auction-house specialist, independent curator, and appraiser, but prints have always remained central to my professional work. (For a thorough and enjoyable nuts-and-bolts tour of various printmaking methods, visit MoMA’s interactive flash feature, “What Is a Print?“)
Championing printmaking can sometimes feel like being a Red Sox fan, pre-2004 World Series title, but like that team, I think it’s due for a big comeback. A European tradition that flourished in postwar America due to a handful of groundbreaking workshops, printmaking seems to have lost some of the momentum it once enjoyed. Aside from the occasional super-edition, such as Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe, few prints were able to attract serious interest in the over-hyped art world of the past decade.
Personal bias aside, this is a great time to spotlight prints for a number of reasons. Many artists are creating them because they enjoy the process and are under less pressure to focus their energy on big-ticket works. Likewise, collectors are more open to prints in the current economy because they are a more affordable art form. Finally, we have entered a period in which many of the aforementioned printmaking workshops that revolutionized fine printing in the United States in the ‘60s and ‘70s have been or will be celebrating their fiftieth anniversaries [first among these, Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) celebrated its fiftieth three years ago and will be featured in a future post].
This year is Tamarind Institute’s birthday. As with all birthdays, this passage of time is something of a shock but the milestone affords an opportunity to look back at what was originally accomplished, review the productive decades in between, and explore new directions in printmaking. Founded in 1960 in Los Angeles by June Wayne, the institute relocated to Albuquerque in 1970 to become part of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. Tamarind’s mission is to promote and maintain a high level of fine art lithography through training new master printers, collaborating with contemporary artists to print and publish new editions, and disseminating information and research on the medium.
