President’s GreetingLeonard Moss

W ith Ed Colker’s presentation, Prints and Poets:In Search of A Spiritual Identity, at our annualmeeting on June 11, the Print Club’s 2006-07

year came to a close. It seems appropriate for me toreview the accomplishments of the past year and to reflecton possible new directions emerging in the world ofprintmaking.

The year began on a peaceful note when Joan Snyderintroduced the 2007 presentation print, Oasis, which shedescribed as “a place where one can dwell.” The annualArtists’ Showcase that followed at the National Arts Clubwas, as expected, an action-packed evening. Five youngartists expressed their intensely personal feelings throughtheir art. The large audience of collectors and their guestswere as emotionally involved in those narratives as thepresenters. The event was evidently a great success.

Other Print Club activities were informative. We wereinvited to tea at the International Fine Print DealersAssociation in November 2006 and to “Works On Paper”by Sanford Smith the following March. Alex Rosenberg,former President of the Art Appraisers Association, spokeon selecting and appraising contemporary prints. “Do notspend ‘remarkable’ amounts on contemporary work asyou have no idea where that artist will be in 10 years.”Maurice Sanchez demonstrated the complicated processof printing an edition from Mylar plates. In response to aquestion from the group in his studio, Sanchez said he islikely to pull about 280 copies to achieve an edition of 200satisfactory prints. A walk through Chelsea, the new art

The PrintClub of NewYork Inc

Spring 2007

gallery center in Manhattan, began on a Saturday morn-ing in April with a view of the work of May Stevens at theMary Ryan Gallery.

The panel discussion of Social Commentary in Print,moderated by Gillian Hannum, included comments byMarshall Arisman, Frances Jetter and Judith Brodsky, allof whom are actively engaged in using the print as a strat-egy to bring about social and political change. The pan-elists shared their thoughts and feelings as theydemonstrated how they communicated their convictionsthrough their art. Their images are imaginative, provoca-tive, and at the same time, exquisitely artistic.

Before the event, I recalled the jarring, unforgettableimages in the homes of prominent art collectors I had vis-ited depicting injustices and horrors, urging the viewer tobecome involved in bringing about social and politicalchange. I thought, by comparison, of the relatively benignthemes in the prints commissioned by the Print Club. Inanticipation of the event, my wife Muriel and I scannedthe images on our walls at home. The panel discussionreinforced our decision to collect only works that we canlive with comfortably.

The panel was prepared with the active assistance ofStephen Fredericks, PCNY Board member and Presidentof the New York Society of Etchers, Inc. He had exhibitedThe Art of Persuasion, a collection of social commentary inprint, at The National Arts Club in April, 2006. The cata-logue of that event published several months laterincludes the comment that printmaking is especially suit-ed to social commentary because it is an inexpensivereproducible medium that is easily disseminated.Members of the panel are continuing to follow their con-victions through their art. Jetter and Fredericks arepreparing The Art of Democracy, which they expect will beexhibited nationally, and Brodsky and Ferris Olin, bothClub members, are pursuing greater recognition of thecontributions of women artists.

PRINTS NOW – DIRECTIONS AND DEFINITIONS byGill Saunders and Rosie Miles (Victoria & AlbertPublications, 2006) addresses the question “What is aprint?” and explores some of the new, ever-expandingdirections in printmaking. They conclude that the use ofnew media such as digital technology, viewed by some asa threat to the future of printmaking, has simply extendedthe options available. “New techniques have taken printsoutside the established critical context, the gallery systemand the art market….Dynamic and democratic, the worldof printmaking now includes the billboard and the badge,the masterpiece and the multiple, the priceless and thegive-away.”

We have evidence that change from the conventional isalready taking place. Chakaia Booker is known for herhuge sculptures made from pieces of used rubber tires. Adiscussion at a recent Print Selection Committee meetingspeculated about the possibility of sending an editionedsmall, relatively flat sculpture to each PCNY member as apresentation print.

Experiments with new techniques are taking place at

P.O. Box 4477 Grand Central Station / New York, N.Y. 10163 / (212) 479-7915 / www.printclubofnewyork.org

The Print Club of New York, Inc.P.O. Box 4477 Grand Central Station

New York, NY 10163Tel:(212)-479-7915

Officers:Leonard M. Moss, President

Charles Blanksteen, Vice PresidentRosalyn Weinstein, Corresponding Secretary

Muriel Moss, Recording SecretaryJoan Blanksteen, Treasurer

Julian Hyman, President Emeritus

Board Members:Laura Stirton AustMary Lee Baranger

Kay DeauxBenjamin Dineen

Stephen FredericksGillian Greenhill Hannum

Natalia KolodzeiMalka Moscona

Muriel MossRaymond Schrag

Publications Committee:Chair: Gillian Hannum

Laura Stirton AustMary Lee Baranger

Maryanne GarbowskyElaine Hyman

Natalia KolodzeiArlyne LesserJilda ManikasLeslie Nolan

Newsletter Editor:Gillian Greenhill Hannum

the Brodsky Center of Rutgers University, NewBrunswick, New Jersey, where the Club’s ElizabethCatlett and Joan Snyder prints were produced. MonaHatoum has completed a “print” of paper pulp,embossed with her image of the world, but without inkprinted on it. William Kentridge has “editioned” a stereo-scopic print that must be viewed through an instrumentin order to be seen in three dimensions. Both “prints” arein great demand.

A revolution in art is predicted by Nobel Laureate EricKandel. In his “new science of the mind,” Kandel com-mented: “as we learn more about how the brain perceivesthe outside world, a new generation of artists, informedby knowledge of the brain, may experiment in ways wenever imagined.”

The 2007-08 PCNY year will open on Monday,September 10, 2007 at the Society of Illustrators whenRichard Haas unveils the 2007 commissioned print, 57thStreet Looking East, a lithograph in black and white show-ing modern Manhattan, traffic and all.

When I visited his studio to pick up an artist’s proof topresent to the Board, Haas graciously showed me many ofhis traditional architectural scenes, for which he is wellknown. Imagine my surprise when the very next day anarticle appeared in the New York Times revealing his otherlife as an artist creating huge murals which embellishurban landscapes from New York to California. The articleshowed a picture of his latest project, a 12-story mural inBrooklyn, commissioned to dress up the courtyard in backof a huge condominium development under construction.Readers are warned not to walk through the realistic-look-ing door painted on the wall. As I understand the thrust ofthe thesis in Prints Now, the Haas project might fall intothe category of a print, along with graffiti, etc.

The Events and Print Selection Committees arepresently hard at work selecting activities to keep mem-bers informed of developments in contemporary print-making. PCNY members are invited to participate inthose committees. Those who are interested can reach meat 609-514-0346 or vogelmoss@aol.com.

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Visit to Derrière L’Étoile Studios, 313 West 37th Street, New York

Monday, February 19, 2007Gillian Greenhill Hannum

O n a frigid President’s Day evening, Print Clubmembers and their guests enjoyed a warm wel-come at the print shop of master printer Maurice

Sanchez. Sanchez has operated a contract studio for morethan 35 years and has been in New York City for 30. Henamed his studio Derrière L’Étoile, meaning “behind thestar.” This alludes to the collaboration between artist andmaster printer, who plays a crucial but supporting role inhelping the artist to realize his or her vision in print.

Sanchez attended University of New Mexico’s Collegeof Fine Arts, won a fellowship to the Tamarind Instituteand then completed his education at the Art Institute ofSan Francisco. He came to New York to work with artistJames Rosenquist and opened his own studio in 1976.Prior to that, he taught at the Emily Carr School of Art inCanada and worked with Petersburg Press in Londonand Brooke-Alexander Editions in New York.

Sanchez’s spacious studio houses several large, flatbedproof presses of the type that were used for commercialwork in the 1950s and 60s. One, a 1960 German offset press,weighs over 8,000 pounds. He makes offset lithographs onthis press, which allows an artist to realize his or her designwithout having the image reverse. The bed adjusts to take astone or a thin, aluminum plate etched from drawingsmade on Mylar by the artist. The plates are made from theMylar using a light transfer process.

Sanchez noted that different master printers have dif-ferent specialties. Few do the kind of offset lithography hedoes. He can generate two to three prints a minute whenthe press is running well. The image transfers from the

Recent Print Club Eventsplate to the roller, then back onto the paper, requiring twopasses of the press. Sanchez said that it takes about onehour to convert the press for each color of ink, the timebeing needed to clean the roller and the “blanket.”

Derrière L’Étoile mainly works with painters whowant to edition prints. This is quite different from work-ing with printmakers, who are all about process. Paintersare mainly interested in the final result, and the masterprinter has to follow their lead and realize their visionusing whatever means are at his disposal. Sanchez notedthat some artists, such as Rosenquist, with whom he hasbeen collaborating for more than 30 years, know all aboutprint processes and what they want to do. Working withhim is like “dancing with an old partner” Sanchez noted.

After showing us the presses and discussing varioustechniques, Maurice Sanchez brought out a pile of prints hehad published. First, he showed members a delicate portfo-lio by Simone Shubuck, her first prints—executed on deli-cate Rives paper. Next came several prints by JohnBaldassari based on Hollywood movie stills. A grisaillelandscape and seascape and a small color landscape byApril Gornik attracted members’ interest, as did several2002 prints by Red Grooms—Masters at the Met, BrooklynBridge and New York Marathon. Works by Carol Dunham,Walton Ford, Robert Longo and Malcolm Morley followed.

Sanchez showed those assembled a 2006 print by ClaesOldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. He also brought outsome recent works by Rosenquist and several images byLouise Bourgeois. A quartet of woodblock images withmonoprint on Japanese paper by New York artist JackieBattenfield attracted interest; they depict a rippled watersurface under different lighting conditions—dawn, brightsun, sunset—much like Monet’s series paintings. Severalprints by Will Barnet came next, followed by works exe-cuted with Marcel Zamos, Stefan Curtin, Sylvia Mangoldand Philip Pearlstein. Your reviewer was attracted to sev-eral spare, abstract works by David Israel. The final groupof images displayed to us was a selection of luscious

monoprints executed by the late Jules Olitski. Sanchez hasalso been “behind” prints by such art world “stars” asElizabeth Murray, Eric Fischl, Jim Dine and Joan Snyder.

The Print Club of New York would like to thank Mr.Sanchez for his hospitality and for taking the time to showand talk to us about the many prints he has published.

Social Commentary in Art: PanelDiscussion with Marshall Arisman,Judith Brodsky and Frances Jetter,moderated by Gillian GreenhillHannum, The Society of Illustrators

Monday, March 26, 2007 Mary Lee Baranger

T his is a hot topic in Western art. The Greeks pillo-ried the Centaurs, the Persians and the Barbarianswho ravaged individuals, the body politic and the

city state. Indeed, significant subject matter has been cen-tral to visual art until the last century. A survey of majorartists of more recent centuries was presented by modera-tor Gillian Greenhill Hannum: Hogarth, Goya, Daumier,Kirchner, Dix, Picasso, Warhol, Catlett, Chicago, andBrodsky. This set the stage for the panelists to discuss

their own work in a broader context.To date, the role of social commentary in prints that are

commissioned by the Print Club is minimal or non-exis-tent. Our President Leonard Moss called attention to thisin his introduction. This raises the question of the functionof art that the panelists addressed. Art to live with on ourdomestic walls may be different from the hard-hitting artthat historically is found in religious institutions (isn’t theCrucifixion social commentary?), government buildings,and now museums and in print.

All three panelists addressed the question of the func-tion of their images: expression of personal feelings andconvictions, attempt to change the world? Both Arismanand Jetter work frequently on commission and with adeadline to illustrate current issues in newspapers andmagazines. One can argue that their art is better for beingproduced with patrons requesting topics and schedules,much as artists had always worked until the 19th centuryrise of a Romantic notion of “art for art’s sake” producedby the free-lance and frequently penniless artist.

What is the difference today between art and illustra-tion? This is a question posed by the art on the walls ofour meeting place, the Society of Illustrators. In an inter-view by “Night Watchman” published in 2005, Arismancommented that in both “fine arts” and illustration, a badpainting on a printed page is a bad painting on a gallerywall. He quotes the sculptor David Smith: “Art that meetsthe minds and needs of other people is commercial art.

Spring 2007 The Print Club of New York, Inc. Page 3

P.O. Box 4477 Grand Central Station / New York, N.Y. 10163 / (212) 479-7915 / www.printclubofnewyork.org

Monday, September 10, 2007, 7 pmSave the date for the Print Club’s annual

Presentation Print meeting at The Society ofIllustrators, where artist Richard Haas will unveil theClub’s commissioned print, 57th Street Looking East.

Monday, October 15, 2007, 6 – 8:30 pmThe Print Club’s annual Artists’ Showcase, one of

our most popular events each year, will be held at thevenerable National Arts Club on Gramercy Square.

Also of interest to Print Club members:June 7 – August 11, 2007

Blue Print: Annual Members’ Exhibition, Center forContemporary Printmaking, Mathews Park, 299 WestAvenue, Norwalk, CT (203) 899-7999 or www.con-temprints.org.

June 14 – August 3, 2007eccentric BODIES, an exhibition of work by artists

with a feminist gaze, curated by Judith K. Brodskyand Ferris Olin, Mason Gross School of the ArtsGalleries, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ,(732) 932-9407, extension 27.

June 18 – August 31, 2007Summer ’07 Exhibition, featuring the work of Beth

Campbell, Hope Dector, Matthew Day Jackson, Mary

Temple and Liz Zanis, guest curated by SebastiaanBremer, Lower East Side Print Shop, 306 West 37thStreet, 4th Floor, New York, Opening Reception June27 from 6 to 8 p.m. See http://printshop.org or call(212) 673-5390 for details.

June 29 – August 3, 2007Silkscreens/New Prints 2007, opening reception

Thursday, June 28, 6 – 8 p.m., International PrintCenter New York, 526 West 26th Street, New York,(212) 989-5090 or www.ipcny.org.

September 6 – October 8, 2007Per Square Foot, inaugural exhibition and grand

opening of Dieu Donné Papermill at its new location,315 West 36th Street, New York. Opening reception,Tuesday, September 25, 6 – 9 p.m. Seewww.dieudonne.org or call (212) 226-0573.

October 18, 2007Benefit auction for Dieu Donné Papermill, 6 – 11

p.m., at Metropolitan Pavilion, 4th Floor, 128 West18th Street, New York. Call (212) 226-0573 for details.

November 1 – 4, 2007Annual IFPDA Print Fair, in conjunction with New

York Fine Art Print Week (October 29 – Nobember 4),Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67thStreet, New York.

Upcoming Print Club Events

Art that meets the needs of the artist is fine art.”All three of the panelists talked about their work with

the passion and commitment that comes from the heart.In style they differ. Arisman uses more painterly shadowsand depths. Jetter draws biting lines. Brodsky combinesline and color panels. Their works vary in the degree oftragedy, irony, satire or humor they present. Their sub-jects vary from profoundly sorrowful and heartbreakingimages of the human condition, of injustice (Arisman), tobiting but humorous commentary on politics, our abuseof the environment, and of each other in our society.

Questions from the audience confirmed that this wasone of the best and most interesting panel discussions thatthe Print Club has hosted.

Chelsea Art Walk

Saturday, April 28, 2007Gillian Greenhill Hannum

T he last Saturday in the second wettest April onrecord dawned bright and sunny—an auspiciousbeginning for the Print Club of New York’s

Chelsea gallery tour. The group met at 11 a.m. at theMary Ryan Gallery, 527 West 26th Street. Mary Ryanmoved to Chelsea, now the hub of the New York artscene, in January after 14 years on 57th Street. The exhibi-tion May Stevens: Ashes Rock Snow Water (new Paintingsand Works on Paper) ran from April 4 – May 5 and wasonly the second show at the new venue. Stevens, now inher 80s, has lived in New Mexico for the last decade. Thisshow of recent work continued to explore a theme theartist has been interested in for the past 15 years—theartistic role of handwriting and script. The “texts” includ-ed in her works of art might come from songs or poems,but they are not necessarily meant to be legible.

The centerpiece of the exhibit was a large, 68 x 169”work from 2005 titled Ashes Rock Snow Water. Executed inacrylic and mixed media on unstretched canvas, the piecewas inspired by a river in Lithuania where her husbandgrew up. There, the townspeople killed the local Jewsbefore the Nazis arrived and threw the bodies into theriver. Small pieces of amber from Lithuania are combinedwith the paint, and a hand on the left symbolically sprin-kles her husband’s ashes on the water. This monumentalcanvas was priced at $75,000.

Smaller works on paper from 2007, Splash and Tide,continued the water theme. May Stevens is attracted tothe subject of water as it carries life and death. The two 22x 30” works in acrylic and metallic gold ink on paperwere priced at $8,000 each.

Another 2007 acrylic on unstretched canvas was alandscape of Martha’s Vineyard. This 54 x 69” painting wassomewhat unique in the show as it does not include anywriting in the water. The scene features the rich red cliffsof the south side of the Vineyard, familiar to those whohave visited Chilmark and Gay Head. It was selling for$30,000.

Mary Ryan also talked to our group about MayStevens’ recent work with prints. Skylight (2006) repre-

sents the artist’s first new print since 2000. It is a 21 1/2 x29 1/2” color lithograph sprinkled with gold dust. Printedby Maurice Sanchez in an edition of 75, this evocativeimage of landscape and figures sells for $2,000 unframed.Ryan also discussed the artist’s Commedia dell’ arte Serieswith the group. This body of work came about as a resultof the artist having been invited to participate in the“Femme Folio” project commissioned by the BrodskyCenter at Rutgers University. An offset lithograph formedthe underpinning of the series, nine of which were paint-ed on in various ways and hung as a suite. The tenthimage is the one being editioned by Rutgers. Althoughthe title comes from the Italian bands of traveling comicactors, Stevens’ series was actually inspired by Mexicancultural traditions.

In addition to presenting May Stevens’ recent work toPrint Club members and their guests, Mary Ryan alsoshowed some other prints she had in the gallery. DonaldSultan’s 12 Colors (2007) was hanging on the wall of thesmall presentation room. This installation of twelve flow-er images, each 25 x 20 1/2”, has a powerful presence. Anedition of 50 was printed, the set of 12 selling for $18,000.A stencil was used to render the single poppy on each“black” square, which is actually comprised of eight lay-ers of color, sanded in between layers. This gives a visualrichness to the surface not usually found in silkscreens.Ryan compared the flower image to Toulouse Lautrec’sfamous print of Loie Fuller dancing, where her abstracted,billowing dress dominates the composition. Anotherwork by the same artist from 2006 is Mimosas. This etch-ing, aquatint and silkscreen in an edition of 90 used roundAvery labels to “lift” color to create the round mimosablossoms.

Finally, Ryan pulled out Asian Contemporary Art inPrint, a folio designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary ofthe Asia Society, which was printed at Singapore TylerPrint Institute. The portfolio, which contains ten prints byimportant Asian artists living around the world, costs$6,000 and is only sold through Mary Ryan. Included areworks by Amanda Heng (Singapore), Michael Lin (Taipeiand Paris), Lin Tianmiao (Beijing), Jiha Moon (Atlanta),Navin Rawanchaikul (Chiang Mai and Fukuoka), NilimaSheikh (Vadodara, India), Wilson Shieh (Hong Kong),Yuken Teruya (New York), and Wong Hoy Cheong(Kuala Lumpur). A special title page was created by XuBing. Printmaking approaches represented include lithog-raphy, woodcut, screenprinting, chine collé, embossingand combinations of techniques.

After a little over an hour with Mary Ryan, memberswere given maps and gallery lists of Chelsea. Yourreviewer and about five others moved next door to MixedGreens at 531 West 26th Street, where I introduced col-leagues to the work of Mary Temple, who createsexquisite paintings and prints of light and shadow effects.(I had seen her work last summer in Mary Temple:Extended Afternoon at The Aldrich Contemporary ArtMuseum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.) The office space atMixed Greens features a wall painted by Temple, and thegallery also kindly showed us a gorgeous blue 2006silkscreen titled Project Room in (Impossible) Moonlight, cre-ated in an edition of 25, which sells for $650. This print isavailable at Mixed Greens and at the Aldrich Museum

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and can be viewed on the Aldrich’s websitewww.aldrichart.org. Temple also created a 2006 set offour silkscreens in collaboration with the Lower East SidePrintshop titled Light Describing a Room in Four Parts; theset of four, available from Mixed Greens or LESP sells for$1600 to $2000 depending on the edition number.

Other club members went on to visit other galleriesand to finish up with a Dutch-treat lunch. It was a glori-ous day for enjoying both art and spring weather!

Print Club of New York, Inc. AnnualMeeting and “Prints and Poets: InSearch of a Spritual Unity,” a talk byartist Ed ColkerThe Society of Illustrators

Monday, June 11, 2007Gillian Greenhill Hannum

The Print Club held its annual business meeting at 7:00p.m. on Monday, June 11 at our “home base,” the Societyof Illustrators on East 63rd Street. President Leonard Mossopened the meeting and invited Treasurer JoanBlanksteen to the podium for the treasurer’s report.Following this, Ms. Blanksteen also reported for theNominating Committee on the elections to the Board ofTrustees. Ninety-one ballots were returned and the fol-lowing members were elected to a two-year term on theBoard: Laura Stirton Aust, Stephen Fredericks, GillianGreenhill Hannum, Julian Hyman, Malka Moscona,Leonard Moss, Muriel Moss, Raymond Schrag andRosalind Weinstein. President Moss thanked so manymembers for returning their ballots in a timely manner.

Following the business meeting, 2004 PresentationPrint artist and keynote speaker Ed Colker addressed thegroup on the topic “Prints and Poets: In Search of aSpiritual Unity.” A renowned artist and educator, Colkerhas served as provost of both Pratt Institute and CooperUnion. In introducing Mr. Colker, Moss noted that hefounded Editions du Grenier, now Haybarn Press, in theearly 1960s for the publication of fine art/limited editionsin collaboration with poets and in response to poeticworks.

Colker began his slide lecture with an historicaloverview of the interrelationship between text and print-ed image, showing early examples from China and Russiaas well as 19th century poet/painter/printer WilliamBlake’s work. He then noted that, beginning at the time ofBaudelaire in the mid 19th century, poetry began to moveaway from literature and to align itself more closely withart and philosophy. Examples of works by ToulouseLautrec and William Morris’ Kelmscott Chaucer followed.

In the early 20th century, a number of outstandingexamples of the marriage of art and text were published—in 1900 Vollard paired Bonnard’s illustrations withVerlaine’s poetry; in 1909 the Italian Futurist Marinettipublished Poupées Electriques; in 1912 Marc, Kandinsky

and their friends issued the Blaue Reiter Almanac; and in1913 Sonia Delaunay-Terk illustrated Blaise Cendrars’ LaProse du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, a sur-realistic take on a trans-Siberian journey.

The 1930s was another period particularly rich in suchpublications, with Picasso illustrating Ovid in 1931,Matisse illustrating Mallarmé in 1932 and GeorgesRouault providing both text and images for Le Cirque del’Etoile Filante in 1938. The 1940s brought Matisse’s Jazzportfolio with its famous cutouts as well as a collabora-tion between former Dadaist Tristan Tzara and artist JoanMiro. In 1958 Miro and Paul Eluard embarked upon adecade-long project, A Toute Epreuve, with 287 illustra-tions.

Colker next turned to American examples of this genre.He noted the 1928 painting by Charles Demuth, I Saw theFigure Five in Gold, which was inspired by a poem byWilliam Carlos Williams and which foreshadows thenumerals in works by later artists such as Jasper Johnsand Robert Indiana.

Another important American contribution was a pro-ject by Atelier 17 that paired twenty-one etchings andpoems, with the latter reproduced in the poet’s own hand.A slide showing the pairing of a Frank O’Hara poem witha Franz Kline etching served as an example. The projecttook nearly a decade to produce. Hart Crane’s Voyages of1959, with engravings by Leonard Baskin, is another highpoint. Finally, in a unique convergence of Europeanexpressionism and American Pop art, the 1964 publica-tion of One Cent Life, written by Walasse Ting, edited bySam Francis and published in Switzerland by E. W.Kornfeld, presented in an “artist’s book” 62 originallithographs by such masters as Dine, Francis, Indiana,Lichtenstein and Warhol.

After showing several examples of productions fromthe Limited Editions Club, Colker turned to his own workin this vein and spoke about his collaborations with thepoets e.e. cummings and Marianne Moore. He showedtwo wonderful images from All Souls, one of four projectsresulting from his collaboration with poet KathleenNorris, inspired by the landscape of the Dakotas. Twoprojects grew from his collaboration with Yiddish poetAbraham Sutzkever, Beneath the Trees and Elephants byNight, the latter showing the poet’s love of Africa. Colkerhas also produced limited editions illustrating the poetryof Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda and Michael Anania.

His most recent project, Open the Gates, involved collab-oration with composer Dave Brubeck. Based on the canta-ta, “The Gates of Justice,” the work expresses hope foruniversal justice, kindness and peace; it draws on textsfrom the Hebrew Bible, the Union Prayer Book, the writ-ings of Hillel, the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. andoriginal texts by Iola Brubeck. Colker’s six lithographs forthis project were printed by Maurice Sanchez. These andother works by Colker and his wife, artist Elaine Galen,can be seen at: http://www.califiabooks.com/fine-press/h/haybarn.html#other.

The Print Club of New York would like to thank Mr.Colker and Ms. Galen for joining us and for making ourAnnual Meeting such a memorable event.

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Print Club members are reminded that renewal noticeswere sent out in May. Annual dues for our fiscal yearbeginning July 1, 2007 are $175. This amount must bereceived by September 15, 2007. After that date, unpaidmembership slots will be made available to new mem-bers. Please send your check and renewal form to:

Renewal RemindersJoan Blanksteen, TreasurerThe Print Club of New York, Inc.P.O. Box 4477Grand Central StationNew York, NY 10163

Thank you.

Maryanne Garbowsky

W hat is the Book of Revelation? The last book ofthe Christian New Testament, it deals with thefinal judgment that will come at the end of the

world. Also known by its Latin name, the Apocalypse, itis believed to be the work of John, the same apostle whowrote the Gospel of John. However, many scholars ques-tion his authorship since the style of both works differsradically.

Equally controversial is the book’s date, which is gen-erally believed to be somewhere between the end of thefirst century C.E. and the beginning of the second. “Somewould date it in Nero’s time (54-68), some in Vespasian’s(69-79), and yet others in the time of Domitian (81-96)”(Balmforth 1549). Other scholars contend that sections ofthe book were done at different times and then added tothe work.

The traditional story explains that John the Apostle,who was exiled to the Greek isle of Patmos, experienced avision, which is then unfolded or “revealed” in this book.The vision tells of the Second Coming of Christ as well asthe destruction of the world as we know it. It also relatesthe future of those who are damned and those who willbe saved and glorified for all eternity. The raw substanceof the book is so dramatic and provocative that it has pro-vided symbols and images for much of Western religiousart.

This was the subject of a recent exhibition at the newlyrenovated Morgan Library. The show, entitled ApocalypseThen: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan, ran fromMarch 23rd to June 17th, and drew from its own presti-gious collections. The Morgan is renowned for “the finestcollection of medieval painting in America” (Masterpieces6). The event celebrated “the completion of a facsimile” ofthe Morgan’s Las Huelgas Apocalypse, an originalmanuscript from a monastery known as the Las Huelgasde Burgos that was found in the late 1860s. According tothe Morgan’s description, it is “the largest and latest of afive hundred years series of medieval illuminated com-mentaries on the Apocalypse by the monk Beatus ofLiebana” (Morgan). David Robb, in his text on the art ofilluminated manuscripts, calls it “the most singularly dra-matic and forceful interpretation of the theme of theworld ending” (Robb 158) until the time of AlbrechtDürer at the end of the 15th century. Dürer’s ApocalypseSeries, comprising sixteen woodcuts, illustrates the Bookof Revelation ranging from the “Battle of the Angels” inwhich angels attack the infidels to “St. Michael Killing the

Apocalypse ThenDragon” to a final “Adoration of the Lamb and the Hymnof the Chosen.” Perhaps the most unforgettable and mostoften reproduced is his “Four Riders of the Apocalypse”with its charging riders, weapons drawn as they “killwith sword, famine, and pestilence” (Rev. 6:8).

Many illuminated manuscripts based on the Book ofRevelation were done during this period because eventsat particular times were thought to be predictive of theend of the world. The millennium, the year 1000, was onesuch time period, as was 1260, when the Tartar invasionof Russia (1237-1240) and the Moslem sack of Jerusalem(1244) encouraged people to believe the end was near.

During the Middle Ages, the art of illuminatedmanuscripts flourished. Called illuminations because ofthe brilliance of the light reflected from such preciousmetals as gold, miniaturists painstakingly “decorated” thetext, enhancing its comprehension as well as enriching itsbeauty. Known for their special hues, the artists oftenkept secret recipes for the composition of their colors(Wilson 30). What was so special about this particularexhibition was that the pages of the manuscript were sep-arate since the book had to be disassembled to make thefacsimile. Thus viewers could see and enjoy each pageindividually before the pages are again bound within theconfines of a book.

In the exhibition, many outstanding miniatures wereshown, among them “Woman Clothed in the Sun and theDefeat of the Seven-Headed Dragon.” Based on Chapter12 of Revelation, the woman is “pursued” by the dragonand escapes on “the two wings of the great eagle” (Rev.13-14). The dragon is “thrown down” and “Satan, thedeceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to theearth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev.12:9). The illumination’s imagery is particularly striking.Spread over two pages, we see the woman in the leftframe threatened by the seven-headed dragon, whoselong coiled tail stretches across the width of the twopages. On the bottom left, the woman is lifted on theeagle’s wings and moves across to the page on the rightwhere we see a bound Satan and his angels entrapped inthe bowels of the earth. In the upper right hand corner,the saved rejoice in their “Salvation and glory” (Rev.18:1). The illustration is richly and vividly colored: thedragon is a brilliant red, a color known as dragon’s bloodbecause it was believed to be made from the blood of adragon (it was actually an Indian shrub which yieldedthis rich hue) (Wilson 30).

Another image entitled “Devil Chained in the Abyssand the Dragon” is based on Revelation 20:1-3.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, hold-ing in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and agreat chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent,who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thou-sand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked andsealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nationsno more . . .

This illumination is divided into three segments. Onthe left is a large green spiraling dragon completely fillingthe space. To the right, the angel holds a large key in onehand and with the other hand restrains the devil or Satan,who occupies the entire bottom third of the image. He is aferocious looking bestial creature whom we see in profile:one large eye the white of which contrasts sharply withthe darkness of his face and coordinates with the longwhite claws on his hands and feet. He lies against a darkbrown background that is decorated with wavy slantingblack lines.

My favorite image, however, is “The Vision of theLamb,” illuminated by Maius (ca. 950) showing theLamb/Christ figure triumphant. In his left leg he holds across/scepter proclaiming the victory that is Christ’s.Referring to Rev. 7:17, the Lamb is “at the center of thethrone” and all around the angelic choir plays instru-ments and sings of his glory: “Salvation belongs to ourGod who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!” (Rev.7:10).

During the Middle Ages, books were precious sincethey were one of a kind and were costly to produce: “Thecost of a very large and lavishly illustrated book could beabout the same as for the construction of a medium-sizedcathedral” (Wilson 7). Only nobles and church members

could afford to own them. Thus they were well preservedand carefully housed, sometimes “kept in the treasury”(Wilson 21).

Since illuminated manuscripts are “exhibited only for afew months at a time and under low artificial light”(Wilson 21), we are grateful to the Morgan Library forsharing its special treasures in a show such as this.Apocalypse Then provided today’s museum visitors a rareopportunity to enjoy a rich visual feast that will not bequickly forgotten.

Bibliography:Balmforth, Rev. H., et al. The Story of the Bible Told by

Living Writers of Authority. Vol. Four: St. John toRevelation. New York: Wm. H. Wise and Company, 1948.

The Harper Collins Study Bible NRSV edited by WayneA. Meeks, et al. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

Kee, Howard Clark, et al. The Cambridge Companion tothe Bible. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum IlluminatedManuscripts. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum,1997.

The Morgan Library and Museum. 23 May 2007.http://www.morganlibrary.org/exhibitions Rachleff,Owen S. Exploring the Bible. New York: Abbeville Press,1981.

Robb, David M. The Art of the Illuminated Manuscript.New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1973.

Simon, Howard. 500 Years of Art in Illustration: FromAlbrecht Durer to Rockwell Kent. New York: Garden CityPublishing, 1949.

Wilson, Elizabeth. Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide toIlluminated Manuscripts. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,1994.

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Will Barnet: Recent Work

The Montclair Museum, February 11 – May 27, 2007Gillian Greenhill Hannum

Presentation Print artist and great friend of the PrintClub of New York, Will Barnet mounted a major exhibi-tion of recent work at the Montclair Museum of Art inNew Jersey. Barnet’s contributions to the evolution ofAmerican art are almost without parallel. Beginning withhis work in the Social Realist style during the 1930s, andprogressing to abstraction in the 40s and 50s, and back tofigurative work again, Barnet has never been one to reston his laurels. Always working, always experimenting,always moving forward, Will Barnet is, today, an inspira-tion to at least two generations of younger artists. This isthe second exhibition the Montclair Museum has mount-ed of Barnet’s work during the current decade; in 2000they organized a major traveling retrospective entitledWill Barnet: A Timeless World.

Exhibition ReviewsThe recent show featured work executed between 2003

and 2005. It marks a reconsideration of ideas with whichBarnet worked in the late 1940s when he became interest-ed in the Indian Space Painters while teaching at the ArtStudents League. The work of that movement, whichinfluenced a number of the Abstract Expressionists aswell, explored Native American pictographic forms innew and creative ways. The recent paintings have theirroots in a period of reassessment that the artist engaged inthree or four years ago when he was recuperating from anaccident and confined to a wheelchair.

Many of the works have seasonal themes—Call itWinter (2003), December (2005), while others focus onchildhood themes and memories. Tom and Halloween(both 2005) evoke wonderful creatures—part human, partanimal. Tom is actually based on a beloved cat the artistonce owned, reinterpreted with “a child-like feeling, howchildren see a cat” (exhibition brochure). Halloweendepicts “a burning sun and struggling, ghost-like armsreaching up” (exhibition brochure).

The dialogue that has always gone on between Barnet’spainting and printmaking is evident in this show as well.Go Go II (2003) and Go Go III (2004-05) are oils on canvas

based upon a 1947 print titled Go Go, which was also onview in another area of the Montclair Museum. The printis an example of Barnet’s early Indian Space work and isan abstract interpretation of Barnet’s little boy holding aduck. The recent paintings, especially Go Go III, reallyevoke the joys and wonders of childhood. Arms andhands seem to be waving and reaching out.

It is fitting that the Montclair Museum mounted thisexhibition, with its references back to the artist’s IndianSpace work; the Montclair Museum of Art has an exten-sive collection of Native American art as well as animportant collection of American 19th and 20th centurypainting.

A concurrent exhibition of Barnet’s drawings from the1970s and 80s at Manhattan’s Babcock Galleries echoedmany of the same themes—children and childhood expe-riences, a contented cat. During this period of the artist’scareer, the work was fairly realistic, though simplified.The lines are sure but spare; the forms are compelling.

Pop Prints from the Collection ofJohn and Kimiko Powers,International Print Center New York,May 3 - June 16, 2007Elizabeth Brown

K imiko Powers nonchalantly gazes at you out ofthe corners of her eyes as you enter theInternational Print Center New York’s gallery

space in Chelsea, appearing both regal and stately in AndyWarhol’s screenprint. Kimiko, who currently lives in Japan,and her late husband, John Powers, were active art collec-tors during the Pop era. The twenty-five piece exhibit atIPCNY was introduced by Bob Monk and is culled fromthe Powers’ private collection located in New York. ThePowers were often close friends of the artists whose worksthey collected, and, in a testament to their involvement inthese artists’ lives, are mentioned in Andy Warhol’s diaries.In addition to Warhol, works by Roy Lichtenstein andClaes Oldenburg were also selected for this exhibit fromthe Powers’ amazing private collection of Pop icons, whichalso includes artists such as Jim Dine and JamesRosenquist, to name but a few. Works included in thisexhibit display both the established and recognizable stylesof their artists, along with works that are more obscure.

Kimiko is a bust-length three-quarter view of the art col-lector, done in Warhol’s characteristic portrait style—abold use of color, a “sloppy” application, slightly off-cen-ter and out-of-frame—making it just so “Warhol,” rightdown to the two specks of blue pupil strategically dottedinto Kimiko’s eyes. Green and black are the only othercolors used in this screenprint, which was done in 1981.The art collector’s dignified appearance in Kimiko exists insharp contrast to Warhol’s depiction of Richard Nixon inVote McGovern, 1972. In addition to its expression of anger

and visible frustration, set against an orange background,Nixon’s face is green and blue, his tie pink and red, andhis hair purple, making the former President appearsomewhat ghoulish in appearance, in accordance withWarhol’s intent.

While Claes Oldenburg is better known as a sculptor,the more obscure prints included in this exhibit show hischaracteristic attention to mundane subject matter.Portraying everyday objects, such as a toilet in the aptlytitled Soft Toilet, Oldenburg manipulates objects to appeardifferent than their reality. In Soft Toilet, Oldenburg’sdepiction appears deflated—a balloon of a toilet fromwhich air has escaped, leaving it malleable and limp.Oldenburg does the same with Woman Hanging inImitation of the Soft Fan (Ed. B.). The title accuratelydescribes the action taking place within the etching. Itshows a naked woman hanging upside down, connectedto a pulley by her ankle. As the title describes, the womanis put in place of what is assumed, from the positioning,to be a ceiling fan. Thus is an object whose everyday useinvolves rotation, a circling of still air, replaced by a pre-sumably living, breathing human being whose purposesand intents far surpass that of any unfeeling thing. Thismore obscure work of Oldenburg’s poses many questionsregarding the artist’s intent and meaning.

This departure from the established and well-reviewedworks of these artists is a continued motif with RoyLichtenstein’s three exhibited pieces. One is a collection ofearly works entitled Landscape, consisting of 10 smallprints. The Landscape series was completed in 1967 anddepicts what seems to be an ocean front in different stagesthroughout the day. Each is a screenprint on plastic, withwhat appear to be photographs added to some, and thereis only a slight use of the very unique Benday dots, whichcame to distinguish Lichtenstein as an artist. It would beeasy to miss the impact of the pieces with a cursoryglance, as the display case in which the series is houseddoes not do the work justice. Although perhaps betterappreciated on the wall, the use of the display caseemphasizes the flatness of the works, a common themethroughout Lichtenstein’s career. One difference betweenthis series and his later works is the use of color. InLandscape the artist uses beautiful colors, such as an irides-cent pink to represent twilight, much more vibrant andcomplex than his muted tones in later works like La Sortie,from Interiors series, done in 1990, a woodcut in the stylethat became eponymous with Lichtenstein.

On a personal note, it was extremely interesting to seethe unexpected works of Warhol, Lichtenstein andOldenburg in this show, because they demanded a closerexamination and required that the viewer compare andcontrast them with the more well-known pieces, whetherit be early career experimentation or late career depar-tures. It also leaves the viewer wanting more, and it iseasy to imagine what other great treasures are locatedbeyond the reach of the gallery visitor within the Powers’personal collection.

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T he Center for Contemporary Printmaking inNorwalk, CT, well known to many Print Clubmembers, has invited a “mystery artist” to create

a print in a limited edition of 100, available only to mem-bers of its new Editions Club. The selected artist livesand works in New York, has exhibited internationallyover the course of the past decade and is represented inthe collections of the Guggenheim Museum, theMetropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of ModernArt, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, to namebut a few. The Editions Club is open to anyone and hasalready attracted members from as far away asCalifornia, Florida and Spain. Spaces have been goingquickly, but some still remain. Only Editions Club mem-bers will be invited to attend a special reception with theartist this fall when the “mystery print” is unveiled.

The Editions Club is part of CCP’s capital campaign

Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Connecticut Offers “Mystery Print”

effort as it enters its second decade. This year only, theeditions program’s inaugural year, all proceeds fromEditions Club memberships ($400 with no tax deduc-tion) will be matched 100% by the Grace and William C.Shanley Challenge Grant.

The CCP has provided the Print Club of New Yorkwith a number of our Artists’ Showcase artists over theyears and is a wonderful resource for both printmakersand print lovers in New England. Its Executive Director,Leslie Nolan, is a longtime member of our club and itsArtistic Director is Tony Kirk, formerly of TylerGraphics, a renowned master printer. The CCP offersexhibitions, workshops, educational programs and anartist-in-residence program.

For further information, contact the Center forContemporary Printmaking at (203) 899-7999 or atwww.contemprints.org.

New York Society of Etchers, IncAnnounces the presentation of:

“THE ART OF PERSUASION” From April 21, 2007 to June 29, 2007Paramount Center for the Arts108 Brown Street, Peekskill, NY

T he Art of Persuasion exhibition of prints orga-nized by The New York Society of Etchers will betraveling over the next two years to several

already scheduled destinations. The first of the re-presen-tations will be at the Paramount Center for the Arts inPeekskill, NY. The exhibit will open Saturday April 21st

2007 and close Saturday June 30, 2007. The Paramount Center for the Arts is housed in a com-

pletely restored early 20th century theatre in the heart ofthe downtown arts and business district of Peekskill, NewYork. Locally, the effort was initiated by gallery ownerWilliam Maxwell of Maxwell Fine Arts and Mr. JonYonofsky, Executive Director of the Paramount Center forthe Arts.

The exhibition of original fine art prints was first pre-sented last November at The National Arts Club in NewYork City where over thirty works of activist and sociallyengaging works were shown. Building upon the criticalsuccess of this show – the format has been expanded toinclude additional prints accommodated by the largergallery space at the Paramount Center for the Arts.

Printmakers participating in the exhibition includeLinda Adato, Marshall Arisman, Kristine Bouyoucos,Ellen Carranza, Ann Chernow, David Fox, Stephen A.Fredericks, Zev Deans, Martha Hayden, Art Hazelwood,Frances Jetter, Denise Kasof, Brian Knoerzer, JessicaLenard, Sue Leopard, Valerie McEvoy, Diane Miller, BillPhipps, Louis Netter, Joan O’Connor, Joseph Ramos,

Victoria Saltzman, SarahSears, Marilyn Silberstang,Bruce Waldman, BarbaraWilson, Edward Fausty,Charlene Tarbox, RosaleeIsaly, Josh McPhee,Mattias Kern, BillMaxwell, and DannyHauben.

Following the extendedtour of the exhibition itwill return to the NationalArts Club for the first twoweeks of November 2008when the show will be pre-sented, in its final recastformat, as The Art ofDemocracy. The Art ofDemocracy will then be apart of a national coalitionof exhibitions led by orga-nizers Art Hazelwood inSan Francisco, Californiaand Stephen A. Fredericksof the New York Society ofEtchers. The coalition effort will include prints and a pro-motional poster exchange between all of the participatingartist printmaking groups. Interested artists and printworkshops and exhibiting societies should contactinfo@artofdemocracy.org.

Further information about The Paramount Center for the Arts pro-grams can be found at www.paramountcenter.org or writinginfo@paramountcenter.org. The center is located at 108 Brown StreetPeekskill, NY 10566 and 914-739-2333. Maxwell Fine Arts is located at1204 Main Street, Peekskill, NY 10566 and can be reached atwww.maxwellfinearts.com . More information about the exhibition andits availability to travel can be obtained by writing info@nysetchers.org.

Ann Chernow, The Art ofPersuasion (poster imagecourtesy of the artist andThe New York Society ofEtchers, Inc.)

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Prints Now: Directions andDefinitions by Gill Saunders andRosie Miles, London: V & APublications, 2006Reviewed by Gillian Greenhill Hannum

P rints Now: Directions and Definitions is the firstmajor survey of contemporary printmaking in adecade. The authors are curators in the Word

and Image Department of the Victoria and AlbertMuseum in London. The text traces the shift over thecourse of the 20th century from prints being made for pri-vate contemplation to prints being created for public dis-play. The rise of print studios in the 1960s and 70s, such asGemini GEL and ULAE in the United States and KelpraStudio in Britain, allowed artists to explore printmakingin a whole new creative way, raising it to the same levelas painting and sculpture. At the same time, artists likeAndy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg appropriatedscreenprinting techniques from the world of advertisingfor use in their art, further encouraging this trend.

Since then, printmaking has developed in a variety ofnew directions. The rise in technology over the last twodecades has opened up all sorts of possibilities. Theauthors argue that those who see digital imaging as theend of the “print” are needlessly concerned. The computeris simply a different tool, opening up a range of new print-making techniques. Lithography did not bring an end tothe woodcut or engraving; photography did not mark theend of traditional printmaking. In the same way, digitalimage making simply opens new opportunities for artists.

Saunders and Miles point out that the audience and mar-ket for prints has shifted in recent years. Much of the con-temporary print scene operates outside the tradition ofeditions, states and proofs. The result includes uniqueprints, unlimited or un-numbered editions, printed wallpa-pers and installations. As the authors note, “All these newinnovations prompt the question: what is a print?” (10). Themedium now encompasses everything from sponsored bill-boards to a cake iced with an inkjet printed image:

Dynamic and democratic, the world of printmaking nowincludes the billboard and the badge, the masterpieceand the multiple, the priceless and the give away. (10)

The book is divided into ten chapters. The first, titled“New Media,” focuses on various ways the computer isbeing utilized in contemporary printmaking. British artistHarold Cohen’s digital prints generated by a computerprogram and countryman Richard Hamilton’s laser printsare presented, along with American artist Peter Halley’sdigital inkjet prints from an online program, as a few ofthe examples in this section. The authors explore collabo-rations between artists and computer programmers andnote that the computer’s potential to layer imagery hasbeen exploited by many artists. An especially complexexample is British artist Julian Opie’s experiments with

Book ShelfLambda prints overlaid with lenticular plastic and withcontinuous animation in Sara gets undressed and Sara danc-ing, sparkly top (2004).

The second chapter is titled “Old Media Made New.”Peter Ford’s (UK) blind embossed images on handmadepaper, Cristina Iglesias’ (Spain) screenprints on aluminumand Anya Gallaccio’s (UK) screenprint on mirror acrylicwith glitter are just a few examples of the artists andapproaches explored in this section.

Chapter Three is titled “Print in 3-D” and explores avariety of works of art utilizing printmaking techniques ininstallation art or combined with sculptural forms. RachelWhiteread’s (UK) Herringbone Floor (2001), a laser-cutrelief in Finnish Birch plywood, Faisal Abdu’allah’s (UK)screenprints on sheet-glass pyramids from 1992, SarahLucas’ (UK) fruitcakes iced with digital inkjet prints inedible ink (2001) and American Lynne Allen’s etchings onhandmade paper—cut, stitched into moccasins and shel-lacked (2000)—are a few of the more creative examples ofthree-dimensional applications in contemporary print-making.

Chapter Four, “Found and Appropriated Print,” exam-ines the manipulation and alteration of existing designs.In Commemorative Toile (1994), American artist RenéeGreen has taken traditional toile fabric and replaced someof the vignettes with scenes relating to slavery by usingcomputer manipulation. The whole was then screen print-ed on linen. British ceramist Grayson Perry incorporatesfound prints into the decoration of his pots.

“New Narratives,” the fifth chapter, focuses on printart from under-represented groups. Here, the work ofPrint Club member Judith Brodsky and the Center forInnovative Print and Paper (now the Brodsky Center) atRutgers, which she founded, is featured. Brodsky’sMemoir of an Assimilated Family, photo etchings based onfamily photos, explores her own Jewish background. Thelate Peter Narbarlambarl (Australia) focused onAboriginal creation myths. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith(USA) in What is an American? explores her NativeAmerican heritage in a lithograph with chine collé, col-lage, hand painting and grommets created in the form ofa “parflêche” (literally, parry arrow), traditionally madeof buffalo hide and used by Native Americans to carryfood or tools.

British artist Richard Woods is among the featuredartists in Chapter Six, “Site Specific Prints.” His New Build(2005), an installation at New College, Oxford, involvedcovering an entire building with woodblock-printed MDF“wallpaper” in a faux red brick. Woods’ contribution tothe 2003 Venice Biennale was a crazy-patterned print ofpavers installed within a medieval cloister.

“The Print as Public Art,” the focus of the seventhchapter, explores ways in which the print medium allowsartists a wide forum. A wonderful example is six coffeecups, produced for Imprint: a public art project, by the PrintCenter of Philadelphia in 2002 using halftone letterpressprinting. British artist Julian Opie’s I dreamt I was drivingmy car, an installation of inkjet printing on vinyl for St.Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, was commissioned

by Vital Arts and was intended to conceal scaffoldingduring a construction project.

Chapter Eight, “Multiples,” gives the origins of theterm in the 1960s, when it referred to an artwork that wasdesigned to be produced in multiple copies but was nei-ther a traditional print nor a cast sculpture. Today, theline between prints and multiples has really blurred.Badges and buttons, postcards and other small, inexpen-sive items carry printed messages and images. Artists’exhibition invitations sometimes fall into this category aswell, as demonstrated by British artists Damien Hirst andSarah Lucas, as do Christmas cards issued by the fine-artshipping company Momart.

Chapter Nine focuses on “Community-basedWorkshops,” such as Dundee Contemporary Arts inScotland, London Print Studio and the Fabric Workshopin Philadelphia, showcasing the work of artists WillieCole (USA), Sonia Boyce (UK) and Ken McDonald (UK).

The final chapter, “Getting into the Marketplace,” talksabout the democratization of art, and of printmaking inparticular. Here, the electronic revolution has made anespecially strong impact. A variety of different publishingvenues, both traditional and online, are explored.

In addition to the 100 full-color illustrations, the bookalso includes a useful glossary of printmaking terms anda bibliography. This book should be in the collection ofany serious collector of contemporary prints.

Carol Wax, Catalogue Raisonné/Prints 1975-2005 by Carol Wax

Athens, Greece: Herakleidon Museum and Artistic Investments, Inc., 2006Reviewed by Stephen A. Fredericks

C arol Wax, Catalogue Raisonné/Prints 1975-2005,published by the Herakleidon Museum ofAthens, Greece, in conjunction with a major exhi-

bition of the artist’s work, is an important new volume.Recently released, it is an invaluable reference for anyonewho has collected Wax’s prints or simply wishes to studythe technique and work of a leading mezzotint practition-er. All of Wax’s works covering the first 30 years of herprintmaking activities are fully illustrated in the catalogueand arranged in chronological order.

Over the last quarter century it has become a morecommon practice to find catalogue raisonnés of our mostimportant printmakers published at mid-career. Theadvent of this practice has brought about many newbooks and helped promote public awareness of printmak-ing. There are obvious advantages to having the work ofan important artist fully documented in mid-career.Having the artist available to confirm relevant facts fromthe chronology of works, the various states, and editionsizes is just the beginning of the many good arguments insupport of this project.

In the case of Carol Wax, Catalogue Raisonné/Prints 1975-2005, her personal contributions to the work make for a

benchmark to be met by all such future publications. Thisvolume is distinguished by the omnipresence of theartist’s voice. In the catalogue it is Wax who expounds onthe inspiration behind her choice of subject matter and thesource of the witty titles she gives her prints. The imagesaccompanied by the artist’s words make for an experienceof sorts that cannot be had in any other way but, perhaps,touring an exhibition with the artist herself.

The catalogue also provides a surprisingly deep lookinto the psyche of the artist. Reading Wax’s colorful andinsightful interpretations of her prints, in the presence ofhigh quality reproductions, induces a stirring effect.Readers may find themselves touched by the catalogue’sintimacy and be drawn far into her imagery. The layers ofsophistication in her mezzotints, simplified through hermastery of technique, can simply swallow the reader.

Those already familiar with the artist’s work will find itan entirely new experience to see this collection of printsthrough her eyes. The reader will readily be captivated byWax’s onomatomania and obsession with man-poweredmechanical objects that click, clatter or ring—like her sig-nature typewriters, sewing machines and their parts. Inshort, this new publication provides an unusually candidlook inside the mind of one of the most gifted printmak-ers in American history. Wax’s catalogue closes the bookon questions of how, when and what she intended tocommunicate – leaving to future historians the questionsthat may reach below the surface and ask why? Theapproach to a catalogue raisonné is utterly refreshingcompared to the many dry and lifeless ones publishedduring the last century.

The catalogue further contains biographical notes fromthe artist explaining how, after a formal education inmusic, she became an artist and found her way to mez-zotint. Paul Firos, the owner and Director of theHerakleidon Museum, wrote the introduction to the cata-logue. Firos and his wife Belinda began collecting Wax’swork after seeing it on the cover of her book, TheMezzotint: History and Technique. They eventually collectedevery print ever released, including her early lithographs,Solstice, and Kaleidoscopic prints. The couple also ownsone of the world’s most comprehensive collections of M.C. Escher works, and Victor Vasarely works that comprisethe core of their museum’s collection.

The exhibition Shadowplay was on view fromSeptember 9th through November 11, 2006. In addition tobeing a comprehensive survey of the museum’s CarolWax collection, the show contained nine drawings andpastels related to the prints. Some of these drawings wereexecuted as ordinary studies and later used as the bases ofprints. Others were created specifically in preparation fora mezzotint. Another element of the exhibition was thepresentation of some of the artist’s personal collection ofstate proofs, preparatory outlines used for transferring theimages to the plates and color separation proofs to helpclarify Wax’s creative process.

The Herakleidon Museum is located in Thissio,Athens, Greece. To learn more about the museum andtheir holdings write info@herakleidon-art.gr, visitwww.herakleidon-art.gr or call Tel. +30210 3461981.

The stylish cover and interior of Carol Wax, CatalogueRaisonné/Prints 1975-2005 was designed by Daphne Firos.

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All photography was shot by Robert Levy. The catalogue,published by Artistic Investments, Inc., Athens, Greecewww.artinvest.gr. is 157 pages and has the ISBN: 960-88876-3-1.

More information about purchasing a copy of Carol Wax, CatalogueRaisonne/Prints 1975-2005, may be obtained from her dealers Stoneand Press, Inc. at www.stoneandpress.com, and Davidson Galleries atwww.davidsongalleries.com, or from the Herakleidon Museum. Forthose interested in learning more about Carol Wax’s imagery it mayalso be viewed in color on her dealers’ websites.

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New Book Available FromRutgers University Press:

June Wayne: The Art of Everything, a CatalogueRaisonné, 1936 – 2006 by Robert P. Conway, 480pages, 662 color and black and white illustrations,published May 2007, ISBN 3824-6, $125. To order call(800) 848-6224 or visit rutgerspress. rutgers. edu.

The Print Club of New York, Inc.P.O. Box 4477 Grand Central StationNew York, N.Y. 10163

Gillian Greenhill Hannum

P resentation print artist Bill Jacklin exhibited recentpaintings this spring in People and Places, atMarlborough Gallery on 57th Street, from April 4

– April 28.In addition to the exhibitions mentioned in the

“Exhibition Review” section of this newsletter, WillBarnet was honored in February by the College ArtAssociation with a Distinguished Artist Award forLifetime Achievement. In reporting the award in theMarch 2007 issue of CAA News, Barnet was cited as “animportant influence on the art world for close to eight

News of Former Presentation Print Artistsdecades….For more than seventy years and countlessmovements in art, Barnet has maintained a recognizedpresence as an artist, a remarkable accomplishment.” Thearticle contains a partial list of collections holding Barnet’swork, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, theMuseum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,the National Gallery of Art, the Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and theWhitney Museum of American Art. The CAA noted thatBarnet’s role as a teacher has been at least as distin-guished as his artistic career, noting that he has taught atthe Art Students League, Cooper Union, the PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Arts, Yale and Cornell Universities.