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Chris Duncan, Everything All at Once (2009). Relief print and
intaglio from 339 plates in 25 colors with collage on Somerset satin paper, BAT
(ed. 12), 60 x 60". Master Printer: Tom Reed. Mildred Lane Kemper Art
Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. Gift of Island Press, 2010. Hi-res
version available upon
request.
Since its formation in 1978, Island Press has evolved from a
traditional contract print shop — producing high quality editions in
standard media and formats — into a uniquely collaborative and educational
enterprise known for complex, large-scale works by a range of nationally and
internationally renowned
artists.
In January, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington
University in St. Louis will explore that evolution with Island Press: Three
Decades of Printmaking. Curated by Karen K. Butler, assistant curator of
the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey more than two-dozen works
highlighting the press’ history of technical innovation, artistic
experimentation and student
participation.
Housed within WUSTL’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual
Arts, Island Press was established by Peter Marcus, now professor emeritus of
printmaking. Originally called the Washington University Collaborative
Printmaking Workshop, the press takes its name from a massively oversized
etching press — 60 inches wide by 120 inches long — that Marcus
built in the early 1990s with St. Louis machinist Warren Sauer, a design they
dubbed “The Island
Press.”
Though university-affiliated presses typically exist as independent
entities separate from the academic structure, Marcus sought to integrate press
operations with the school’s teaching mission, allowing students to assist
visiting artists and the master printer at all stages of creation and
production. Joan Hall, currently the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art, who
became director of the Press in 1999, would expand Marcus’ original aims
by involving students in new areas of production, such as fabricating handmade
paper and assembling three-dimensional collage
elements.
During the press’ first decade, artists such as Peter Dean,
Rafael Ferrer, Joyce Kozloff, Roy Lichtenstein and David Nash largely engaged
traditional printmaking techniques, such as lithography, etching and
occasionally monotype, in ways that reflected the period’s dominant
trends, such as expressionist painting and identity
politics.
Notably, Lichtenstein’s Study of Hands (1981)
combined two techniques, lithography and silkscreen, that were not usually
joined together — an innovative practice that in many ways prefigured the
experimental and multidisciplinary approach that would become increasingly
characteristic of the
press.
In the 1990s, artists including Michael Berkhemer and Joyce Scott
created works of dramatic size and scale while exploring the use of
nontraditional methods and materials, such as mixed media, handmade paper and
appropriated imagery. At the same time, prints by Sue Coe, Annette Lemieux, Juan
Sanchez and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith investigated questions of race, identity
and political engagement. In her provocative Trademark (1992), Hung Liu
highlighted the historical repression of women as well as the complex legacy of
economic and cultural exchange between East and West by juxtaposing an
historical photo of six Chinese prostitutes with a Western-style painting of a
woman from the Chinese Imperial
Court.
Over the last ten years, Island Press has continued to produce
large-scale, mixed-media works of striking technical and conceptual complexity.
Chris Duncan’s vivid Everything All at Once (2009) employed 339
separate printing plates in 25 different colors — a labor-intensive
assembly accomplished only with the help of student printmakers. Works by
Chakaia Booker, Squeak Carnwath and T. L. Solein combine a range of techniques
— from etching, collagraph and monotype to chine collé and digital
photography — to create dense, atmospheric
surfaces.
Meanwhile, Tom Friedman’s Vanishing Point (2006),
though titled for a traditional pictorial device used to create the impression
of depth, offers a somewhat ambiguous meditation on the history of artistic
practice. Does this image of Friedman’s scattered, receding possessions,
mourn, reclaim or mock Renaissance
conventions?
Most recently, Ann Hamilton, the inaugural Arthur L. and Sheila
Prensky Visiting Artist at Island Press, has worked with students and master
printer Tom Reed to create a site-specific installation. The ongoing,
as-yet-untitled work encompasses experiments with cast paper, newsprint, carbon
paper, letterpress, laser cut printing, digital printing and photolithography,
as well as more traditional forms such as etching and engraving. Like many of
Hamilton’s installations, the piece is both collaborative and interactive,
exploring the intersection of language, visual image and physical
gesture.
Mildred Lane Kemper Art
Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of Washington
University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is committed to
furthering critical thinking and visual literacy through a vital program of
exhibitions, publications and accompanying events. The museum dates back to
1881, making it the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi River. Today it
boasts one of the finest university collections in the United
States.
Supporters
Support for Island Press: Three Decades of Printmaking is
provided by Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual
Arts and by members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art
Museum.
Island Press: Three Decades of Printmaking will open with a
reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, and remain on view through April 18,
2011. Both the reception and exhibition are free and open to the public. The
Kemper Art Museum is located on Washington University’s Danforth Campus,
near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Regular hours are 11
a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The Museum is closed
Tuesdays.
For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
CALENDAR
SUMMARY
WHO: Mildred Lane Kemper Art
Museum
WHAT: Exhibition, Island Press: Three Decades of
Printmaking
WHEN: Jan. 28 to April 18, 2011; Opening 7 to 9 p.m. Friday,
Jan.
28.
WHERE: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University,
near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker
boulevards
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays; 11
a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed
Tuesdays.
COST: Free and open to the
public
INFORMATION: (314) 935-4523 or kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu
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URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21756.aspx
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