"Out of the Box: 20th-Century Print Portfolios"
2002-03-30 until 2002-06-23
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, PA, USA

This exhibition examines the portfolio as a vital format in twentieth-century European and American printmaking. Conceived, produced, and housed together, often in custom-made boxes, prints in portfolios share similar formal or thematic elements.

Eleven complete print portfolios from the permanent collection provide visitors with a rare opportunity to see the creative statement of each featured artist in its entirety. The two earliest portfolios on view are El Lissitzky's Victory Over the Sun (1923) and Man Ray's Revolving Doors (1926), followed by Jackson Pollock's Portfolio of Six Prints (1951).

The popularity of the portfolio format greatly increased after the late 1950s, when professional print workshops such as Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) and Tamarind Lithography Workshop opened in the United States. Out of the Box includes portfolios from this later period by Barbara Kruger, Gerhard Richter, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol. Some of the suites, such as Ellsworth Kelly's Ten Lithographs (1970), are exhibited for the first time.

IMAGE:
El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890-1941)
New Man from Victory Over the Sun
1923
Color lithograph
15 x 10 1/2 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Dr. George J. Roth, 1953

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Pennsylvania

Other Important Exhibitions in Philadelphia