For
more than half a century, the Printmaking Workshop has fostered
creative graphic work by thousands of artists. It has been a catalyst
within the international printmaking community, "seeding" other
institutions, schools, and workshops, including The Lower East
Side Printshop in New York City, The Asilah Workshop in Morocco,
and even the first Namibian printshop established for black artists
in post-apartheid South Africa. The Robert Blackburn Printmaking
Workshop Collection and Archives provides a unique record of these
many artists and their diverse processes and is a powerful graphic
chronicle of artistic movements, intangible exchanges, theories,
and practices over the past fifty years.
Elizabeth Catlett (b. 1915)
Bread
(or The Right to Eat), 1968
© Elizabeth Catlett/Licensed
by VAGA,
New York, NY
Linocut
Prints and Photographs
Division (30)
|
Elizabeth Catlett was born,
raised, and educated in Washington, D.C., before leaving
to work and study in Mexico, where she permanently settled
in 1949. She studied at Howard University in the 1930s and
was a member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular
in Mexico from 1944 to1966.There she produced such works
as The Negro Woman print series (1946-1947), dedicated
to the identity of black women over time. Bread,
first printed in 1952, celebrates the concept of agrarian
reform in Mexico in the form of a smiling child eating bread
in a wheat field.
|
|
Roberto DeLamonica, the first
Brazilian artist to win a Guggenheim Fellowship (1965),
taught printmaking at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil and the Art Students League in New York
from 1967 to 1995. In a 1986 interview with artist Renée
Lerner, he said: "I have always leaned towards Onirism
. . . as expressed by Odilon Redon and Paul Klee. Onirism
is the school of art which describes a world that you don't
see. . . . I always had the tendency to describe, not the
conventional, not the formal, but more the magic world that
I think exists."
|
Roberto DeLamonica (1933-1995)
Who, 1969
Intaglio
Prints and Photographs
Division (31)
|
|
Shiou-Ping Liao (b. 1936)
Day/Night, 1976
Silkscreen
Prints and Photographs
Division (32)
|
Taiwanese artist Shiou-Ping
Liao studied during the 1960s at the Tokyo University of
Education and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
before moving to New York in 1969. He has taught printmaking
at the National Taiwan Normal University and the Culture
University and in Japan at the Tsukuba University, where
he set up a printmaking studio. During the 1980s and 1990s,
he continued to teach in China and in the United States.
For Liao, who lived close to a Buddhist temple as a child,
gates and doorways are a common artistic theme.
|
|
Before working as a master
printer at the Printmaking Workshop, Sudanese-born artist
Mohammed Omer Khalil studied at the School of Fine and Applied
Art in Khartoum and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence,
where he first became interested in printmaking. Cinnamon
was made in Morocco for the Festival of Asilah in which
he has participated annually since 1978. During that year,
Blackburn was first invited to come to the festival, along
with several other artists, including Camille Billops. Khalil
continues to oversee the Asilah print workshop which is
modeled on Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop.
|
Mohammed Khalil (b. 1936)
Cinnamon, n.d.
Photoetching
Prints and Photographs
Division (33)
|
|
Camille Billops (b. 1933)
For Japanese with Mirrors,
1996
Intaglio
Prints and Photographs
Division (34)
|
Versatile artist Camille
Billops, also known as cofounder of the Hatch-Billops Archives
of Black American Cultural History in New York, created
multiple versions of this work, including one in red, white,
and blue. Combining image and text to explore notions of
race, identity, and nationalism, Billops includes a reverse
image of a Japanese poem which begins: "The blue-eyed black
face and the slant-eyed kinky-haired/ dancing between gardens
of racial purity; eating sushi and corn bread and listening
to funky koto music. . . ."
|
|
Richard Nelson studied engraving
with Swiss-born artist Dadi Wirz (who had served as Master
Printer for Atelier 17) while Wirz was visiting Nelson's
Texas University. Nelson also worked in Paris at Atelier
17. From 1977 to 1995, he worked, taught, and studied with
Robert Blackburn at the Printmaking Workshop until 1995.
Nelson is also an engineer and accomplished musician who
plays the harpischord, guitar, and sitar. This whimsical
image of harpsichordist, organist, and conductor Gustav
Leonhardt (b. 1928) comes from a suite of engravings depicting
musicians.
|
Richard Nelson (b. 1954)
Untitled (Gustav Leonhardt), n.d.
Engraving
Prints and Photographs
Division (35)
|
|
Diogenes Ballester (b. 1956)
La dilatación
del ser (Expansion
of Being), 1982
Etching, embossing, and relief printing
Prints and Photographs
Division (36)
|
Puerto Rico-born artist Diogenes
Ballester worked at the Printmaking Workshop during the
1980s. He remembers an atmosphere rich in the exchange of
ideas, and discussions of culture, politics, and art in
"our native countries . . . [which] were very spontaneous
and free". In 1998, the artist served with Robert Blackburn
on the jury for the twelfth San Juan Biennial of Latin American
and the Carribean held in Puerto Rico.
|
|
Sculptor/printmaker Melvin
Edwards and poet and performance artist Jayne Cortez have
collaborated on many projects, such as the 1994 publication
Fragments, which included photographs from Edwards'
Lynch Fragment sculpture series. Edwards, who was
first invited to come to the Printmaking Workshop in the
early 1970s, credits Robert Blackburn for providing his
earliest opportunity to create prints and considers him
a pioneer in the field of printmaking. Edwards and Cortez
worked at the Printmaking Workshop up through the 1990s.
|
Melvin Edwards (b. 1937) and Jayne Cortez (b. 1936)
For the Brave Young Students
in Soweto, 1984
Monotype
Prints and Photographs
Division (37)
|
|
John Biggers (1924-2001)
Family of Six, 1986
Lithograph
Prints and Photographs
Division (38)
|
John Biggers often drew inspiration
from the art and culture of Africa and the American South.
Born in North Carolina, he studied under Elizabeth Catlett
and Charles White at Hampton University. In 1949, he founded
the art department at Texas Southern University where he
taught until 1983. In this work, the star-shaped string
from mouth to mouth (also seen in his 1972 drawing Three
Generations) can be read as the oral transmission of
knowledge from person to person and across generations.
Biggers called his use of dynamic, geometric shapes "sacred
geometry.
|
|
By Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican
artist Juan Sanchez, La Lucha Continua ( the struggle
continues) comes from a series of lithographs, published
by the Exit Art Gallery. The Taíno Indian word "Guariquén"
can be read as "Look, come, and see" and "Rican/Struction"
is borrowed from Salsa percussionist Ray Baretto. Shown
are a glimpse of a girl in her first communion dress and
a devotional card of Saint Martín de Porre. The text
reads: "May we, the third world, first world brothers and
sisters, be delivered from democracy's prisons. May our
spirit ring true."
|
Juan Sánchez (b. 1954)
La Lucha Continua,
from Guariquen, Images and Words Rican/Structed series,
1986
Lithograph with collage
Prints and Photographs
Division (39)
|
|
Faith Ringgold (b. 1930)
Death of Apartheid,
1984
Intaglio
Prints and Photographs
Division (40)
|
Born in Harlem, Ringgold
has been a feminist, art activist, and charismatic educator
since the 1960s. Her rich body of work includes paintings,
murals, performances, sculptural objects, costumes, publications,
wall hangings, and quilts. Ringgold created her first quilt
in 1980 while collaborating with her mother, a fashion designer
and dressmaker. Since then, she has become renowned for
her narrative "story quilts." Ringgold created prints at
the PrintmakingWorkshop during the mid-1980s; some were
also printed on canvas and later incorporated into quilts.
|
|
Aspiration
is based on a gouache painting made in commemoration of
the eightieth anniversary of the NAACP. Early in his illustrious
career, Lawrence was part of the thriving art scene in Harlem
alongside Robert Blackburn. He studied with Charles Alston
and Augusta Savage and was active in the Artists Union and
the WPA. In 1940, he moved into a building on 125th street
where Blackburn, William Attaway, Romare Bearden, Ronald
Joseph, and Claude McKay already lived. He taught at Black
Mountain College, the Art Students League, and the University
of Washington.
|
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)
Aspiration, 1988
Lithograph
Prints and Photographs
Division (41)
|
|
William T. Williams (b. 1942)
Untitled
(Take Out), 1985
Intaglio
Prints and Photographs
Division (42)
|
William T. Williams aspires
to create visual masterpieces that will appeal to audiences
of all races and backgrounds. Like many artists who have
worked in the Printmaking Workshop over the years, Williams
gained inspiration from African art, especially textile
art. He brings an organic and textured feel to this richly
exuberant untitled print.
|
|
New Orleans artist Willie
Birch uses brilliant colors and a storyteller's keen eye
to portray a young man being photographed in cap and gown
on his graduation day. According to the artist, the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn, New York, was the inspiration for this
scene. By placing his protagonist in a place known at the
time for street violence, the artist underscores the joy
and victory of the moment and conveys hope for a brighter
future. As an artist and teacher, Birch is concerned with
the empowerment of children and advocating for them through
his work.
|
Willie Birch (b. 1942)
Graduation Day,
1987
Lithograph
Prints and Photographs
Division (43)
|
|
Margo Humphrey (b. 1942)
With Only the Gods from
Haitian
Compassion Suite, 1994
Drypoint with chine collé
Prints and Photographs
Division (44)
|
With Only the Gods
refers to the plight of Haitian refugees who set off in
small boats to immigrate to the United States and were intercepted
and held at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The
artist recalls "they couldn't go back or forward" and in
her image, has placed gods at either end of the boat to
protect the people on their uncertain journey. This is one
in a suite of complex drypoints Humphrey produced at the
Printmaking Workshop on this theme in the 1990s.
|
|
The symbolic power of landscape
has been a common theme in the work of New York-based artist
Kay WalkingStick. A member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,
WalkingStick remarks: "I view myself as an Indian woman
who is part white. But I would hope that these works elicit
a response in the viewer that is deeper than racial or cultural
differences. . . ." WalkingStick has been painting and teaching
since the 1950s and is best-known for her richly colored
and densely layered diptych paintings that reference natural
forms.
|
Kay WalkingStick (b. 1935)
Triphammer,
1989
Intaglio and embossing with chine collé
Prints and Photographs
Division (45)
|
|
Edward Fausty (b. 1954)
#14 from "Camera
Vision," 1993
Collotype
Prints and Photographs
Division (46)
|
Ed Fausty came to the Workshop
to make collotypes, an antique, photomechanical process.
Fausty remembers: "I had no printmaking experience at all
. . . the nature of the collotype plate is such that one
minute a given plate might take no ink and print all white,
and another it might take so much that it would print all
black . . . I had been at the workshop a few days when Bob
drifted over and looked down at the press as I tried once
again. And at that very moment, as I rolled the ink on,
a beautiful full-toned photographic image appeared before
us. That was my first success!"
|
|
Romanian-born printmaker
Ana Golici first visited the Printmaking Workshop in 1988.
Impressed with her lithographs, Blackburn showed her a selection
of large stones and invited her to choose one and get to
work. At this time, she was also rapidly absorbing information
through books on art, science, photography, and nature.
In 1999, Golici gained access to a scanning electron microscope,
which allowed her to photograph the surface of a flea enlarged
750 times. The surreal landscape in Flea (one in
a series) brings the viewer nearer the molecular level of
a vast universe.
|
Ana Golici (b. 1955)
Flea, 1994
Xerox transfer
Prints and Photographs
Division (47)
|
|
Rudzani Nemasetoni (b. 1962)
Untitled, 1996
Photogravure on wood veneer
Prints and Photographs
Division (48)
|
This work is from a series
by South African-born artist Rudzani Nemasetoni that incorporates
imagery from identity documents for himself, his family,
and art world figures including RobertBlackburn and Bill
Wright. The series explores issues of transient, shifting,
and denied identities. In this work, the artist's last name
is seen misspelled on his cancelled passport, a problem
which started with his birth certificate and followed him
into adulthood. The majority of works in this series refer
to people who were working at Blackburn's studio in 1996.
|
|
Suzanne Scherer and Pavel
Ouporov met and began collaborating in 1989, as students
at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow. Scherer recounts:
"In 1992, shortly after moving to New York City, we were
fortunate to find Bob Blackburn, who gave us the opportunity
to continue our love of printmaking." This diptych, one
of the earliest works the artists produced at the Workshop,
is part of a series investigating funerary customs. It includes
funerary prayers in Old Russian and in English.
|
Scherer (b. 1964) & Ouporov (b. 1966)
Death Portrait—Suzanne
and Pavel,
1994
Etching, engraving, and aquatint (diptych)
Prints and Photographs
Division (49A, 49 B)
|
|
Susan Weil (b. 1930) and
Marjorie Van Dyke (b. 1950)
James Joyce's The
Epiphanies, 1987
Page 1 - Page
2 - Page 3 -
Page 4 -
Page 5 - Page
6
A Vincent Fitzgerald Project
Illustrated portfolio with etching, photo etching, lithography,
collage, cutting, and handwork.
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division (50)
|
Susan Weil met artist's book
publisher Vincent Fitzgerald while working at Robert Blackburn's
Printmaking Workshop. When he asked which writer's words
they could imagine making images for—she and fellow
artist Marjorie Van Dyke both thought of James Joyce. In
the resulting collaborative work, Joyce's forty "epiphanies"
were divided into four sections with Weil treating planes
and death, and Van Dyke—dreams and games. The death
section, seen here, was inspired by this passage: "That
is no dancing. Go down before the people, young boy and
dance for them . . ."
|
|
In 1956, the Printmaking
Workshop faced the imminent threat of closing its doors
because of a lack of funds. At this point, artist Chaim
Koppelman made a critical decision that transformed the
studio into a seven-member artist cooperative with annual
dues to help support the workshop. Blackburn credits him
with saving the Workshop in this troubling time. Koppelman
came to the Printmaking Workshop from Hayter's Atelier 17.
This work is related to a sequence of color lithographs
entitled Closeness and Clash in Couples and Domestic
Life.
|
Chaim Koppelman (b. 1920)
Over Brooklyn, 1975
Lithograph
Prints and Photographs
Division (51)
With permission of the artist
|
|
John Wilson (b. 1922)
Dialogue, Etching,
1974
From Impressions: Our World, illustrated portfolio
© John Wilson/Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY
Prints and Photographs
Division (52)
|
This work by Boston artist
John Wilson comes from a Printmaking Workshop portfolio
"dedicated to the Black Experience" with texts by Romare
Bearden and Edmund Barry Gaither, and prints by Emma Amos,
Benny Andrews, Vivian Browne, Eldzier Cortor, Mohammed Khalil,
Norman Lewis, Vincent Smith, and Wilson. Wilson's body of
work includes a group of prints based on the writings of
Richard Wright and a powerful series of graphic portraits
of Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as a bronze sculpture
of the civil rights leader for the United States Capitol.
|
|
In her work, Emma Amos often
addresses issues of feminism, politics, culture, and her
own personal history. Born in Georgia, she studied in Ohio,
London, and New York. She was the only woman in the Spiral
artists' group (1963-1966) that included Charles Alston,
Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, Norman Lewis, and Hale
Woodruff. Sand Tan, printed at the studio of Kathy
Caraccio, is from a series of prints created by the artist
to represent strong-looking, beautiful black women. Amos
first came to the Printmaking Workshop in the late 1960s.
|
Emma Amos (b. 1938)
Sand Tan,
ca. 1980
Etching and aquatint
Prints and Photographs
Division (53A)
|
|