The 2008 IFPDA Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory opened with a gala preview party on October 30, a benefit of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, to a large and enthusiastic crowd. As museum patrons and celebrities wandered the booths, it was clear from the proliferation of red dots that they were captivated by the diversity of offerings ranging from Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First.
As one London dealer put it, “We love to come to the New York because the understanding of prints is so great.” Much of that connoisseurship can be attributed to the elected members, dealers and publishers of the International Fine Print Dealer’s Association (IFPDA) who, throughout the organization’s 21-year history, have imparted volumes of information, in accord with the organization’s standards.
Diane Villani, president of the IFPDA and owner of Diane Villani Editions, a contemporary print publisher, set the tone for the show by highlighting new etchings by Red Grooms. These included “The Butterfly Chaser,” “Aubrey Beardsley,” “Napo and Josephine” and “Giacometti,” each in editions of 20 to 25.
Osborne Samuel LLC, Modern and contemporary art, of London, a founding member of the IFPDA, coordinated its exhibit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Rhythms of Modern Life,” which features the linoleum cuts of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art working in the early part of the Twentieth Century. British Vorticism †a combination of Cubism and Italian Futurism ostered by the school’s mentor, Claude Flight, captures the abstract energy of an industrialized word, Gordon Samuel explained.
Front and center was “Football,” a rare 1929 two-color poster that was one of several commissioned as transit maps by the London Underground. It carried the joint signature “Andrew Power,” for Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power, two of the school’s leading figures. On a side wall, “Speedway,” Andrews’ tour de force of motorcycles and motion played out in circles and angles of raw sienna, Venetian red, permanent and Chinese blue, sold almost immediately.
Redfern Gallery, also of London, carried out the theme by featuring 70 prints by members of the Grosvenor Group. Included among these were Sybil Andrews’ dynamic “Concert Hall,” 1929, and Cyril Power’s “The Tube Train” and “The Tube Station.”
Meanwhile, Mary Ryan also gave nod to the exhibition with her selection of prints. Ryan, however, also mixed it up a bit, leading with Edward Hopper’s 1922 etching “East Side Interior.” She also paid homage to the Morgan Library’s exhibition “Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors,” with a group of works by Laurent de Brunhoff. Included was his most recent limited edition series, “Four Seasons.”
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc picked up on the Wadsworth Atheneum’s “At Home with Gustav Stickley: The Stephen Gray Collection” by featuring several prints by Arthur Wesley Dow, the design leader of the American Arts and Crafts movement whose sensual abstract artworks united Western tradition with Asian design. That said, the gallery eclipsed the period with rarities from other eras, such as David Smith’s etching with roulette work. Only one other impression of this print is recorded and it was an earlier state before the edition of roulette work.
Hirschl & Adler also showed six abstract woodcuts, untitled, by Donald Judd, 1988‱990, in cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow and cadmium yellow deep on Japanese laid paper. Also outstanding was Lucio Fontana’s untitled ( Concetto Spaziale ), circa 1963, a color lithograph with slashing of the support.
Given the pervasive influence of Asian works on Western art, the best place to make the connection was at The Art of Japan of Medina, Wash. Richard Waldman proudly presented among older works, the art of the 1920s. Showcased were Oda Kazuma’s “Shinobazu Pond in Show at Askusa,” 1925, Kawase Hasui’s “Hazy Night at Miyajima,” 1921, and Ito Takashi’s “Lake Ashinoko in Rain †Hakone Series,” 1929.
The Old Print Shop, New York City, featured Irving Penn’s platinum-palladium print “Cuzco Children” on its outside wall. The large and remarkable study in black and white was matched inside by an equally dramatic, but much smaller work by Kerr Eby. The artist’s most famous image, “September 13, 1918, St Mihiel (The Great Black Cloud)” etching, aquatint with sand paper ground, 1934, captured the profound darkness of the battlefield. It was but one example from the gallery’s current exhibition “Artists Go to War! 232 Years of Art on the Battle Front.” Balancing out the heavy theme were John Sloan’s 1915 “Barber Shop,” Howard Cook’s “Harbor Skyline,” aquatint on soft ground, and Lois Lozowick’s “Through Brooklyn Bridge Cables,” 1939, among others.
For Old Masters, David Tunick’s offered Rembrandt’s “most important landscape etching,” “The Three Trees,” 1643. Albrecht Dürer’s “Melancholia 1,” a 1514 engraving, was among the earliest prints at the show. Also on display, and new to the marketplace, were James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s “Old Battersea Bridge,” 1878, and “Nocturne,” 1879‸0.
Hill-Stone, also purveyors of Old Master prints, highlighted Peter Bruegel’s “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha,” a copper printing plate. Jacques Bellange’s “Rising Lazarus,” etching and engraving, and Jan Müller’s “Lot and his Daughters,” an engraving, spoke to religious themes.
Joel R. Bergquist Fine Arts, Stanford, Calif., showed James McNeill Whistler’s 1879‸0 work, “The Beggars,” a stunning portrayal of mother and daughter awaiting alms in a tunnel, lit only by a street fixture. In contrast to Whistler’s sad commentary on life was Jean-Francois Janinet’s 1788 image “L’Indiscretion,” a rare Eighteenth Century French color print of five colors with pin holes as registration marks still evident. This was displayed together with “La Comparison” and “L’aveu Dificle,” forming a suite of prints completed by the artist over a period of 18 months.
Viewers who saw MoMA’s current exhibition, “Kirchner and the Berlin Street,” were treated to the opportunity to buy the artist’s work at Worthington Gallery of Chicago. Covering the German Expressionists, Blaue Reiter, Modern and contemporary German and American Masters, the gallery also displayed Max Beckmann’s “Der Raucher Selbst Portrait,” (The Smoker Self Portrait), 1916, a dramatic color drypoint, Paul Klee’s “Seiltänzer (The Tight Rope Walker),” a 1923 color lithograph, and Wassily Kandinsky’s “Kleine Welton VIII,” a 1922 woodcut.
Contemporary offerings were prevalent and New York City dealer Carolina Nitsch showed one of the more subtle and exquisite pieces in the show. It was Louise Bourgeois’ cloth bound book, Ode a La Bievre , 2007, printed with archival dyes. Another Bourgeois offering was The Good Mother , also archival dye printed on fabric with aluminum, an edition of nine. On a far wall, Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ untitled airport panoramic litho in three parts was arresting. The edition of 36 was printed by Nitsch for the New Museum in New York City.
Several other dealers offered works by artists working in parts to a make the whole. One of the more outstanding was “This is Shahnoza in 3 (sic) Parts,” by Julian Opie at Alan Cristea Gallery. Linear images of a pole dancer in nine different poses, each of the figures is made using a combination of silkscreen and flocking. The technique of flocking, which may conjure images of ornate over-the-top French wallpapers to the uninitiated, is achieved by blasting the surface with fine felt particles. The result is a rich velvety texture.
Among the gallery’s other contemporary offerings were works by Christiane Baumgartner, who is known for monumental woodcuts based on her own films and video stills. The works take the form of diptychs of the same image taken seconds apart. Remarkably, Baumgartner prints the large images herself.
Across the way, Graphicstudio/USF, a university based nonprofit research institute specializing in prints, photographs and multiples that accepts artists by invitation only, featured the outlandish work of Trenton Doyle Hancock. A suite of four etchings on black paper titled “Wow That’s Mean,” 2008, were shown on a panel of the artist’s wallpaper. “Flower Bed II: A Prelude to Damnation,” 2008, is a ten-color screen print paper with fluorescent inks featuring characters from an imaginary world. According to the gallery’s literature, “The style of Doyle’s paintings and other visual work appears to be influenced by abstract expressionism, surrealism and ‘bad art.'”
William Weston, the longest established Modern print gallery in England, offered a rare invitation by another artist that came into the artistic community by the back door. Jean Michel Basquiat’s 1985 invitation to a private viewing of his work at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is now highly desirable. Having survived mostly intact, except for a small coffee stained corner, “Quetzatcoatl” was featured on a tabletop. On the wall behind, Christo’s “Trees for the Champs Élysées,” an original color lithograph with relief collage of thread, staples, plastic and transparent polythene, together with photo and plan retouched by hand in felt tipped marker, put yet another spin on creativity. Seeing these works in the context of art history was easy as they were surrounded by master prints by Picasso, Sisley, Dufy, Leger, Cocteau and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, featured a wall of works by Hamish Fulton, who envisions art as words, impressions of the very long walks he takes. One of the works was an offset litho, in hand lettered font that read, “No thoughts counting 7 paces on Senjoh Dake at Sunset †1982 †1989.”
Andrew Ehrenworth, the gallery director at Susan Sheehan Gallery, spoke about the print market, saying, “It used to be a really democratic market, but it has moved up.” Among their special works were pieces by Ellsworth Kelly, who “generally works from the world around him, seeing abstract shapes in everyday things and translating them to art.” Wayne Thiebaud’s “Four Cakes” and an early Joan Mitchell’s silkscreen summed up the Sheehan focus on Twentieth Century American works.
Marlborough Gallery presented iconic works by Modern and contemporary printmakers, mixing masters such as Picasso, whose etching “847 Series No. 334” paired a nude king with his queen, with Manolo Valdes etchings such as the collage “Woman in a Big Dress,” from the Perfil Series.
Sims-Reed, London, also presented a cross-section of well-known artists, from Matisse to Damien Hirst. Frederick Mulder, also of London, showcased its outside wall with Picasso prints of Exposition Vallauris, 1952‱960.
William Shearburn Gallery, St Louis and Santa Fe, attempts to “be representative of the programs at the gallery,” stated proprietor William Shearburn. The display included Robert Motherwell’s “Put Out all Flags,” a 1980 aquatint lift-ground etching, and Maya Lin’s pinched cast silver portfolio box, “Headwaters to Gulf,” which is a snaky representation of the Mississippi River.
For further information, contact IFPDA at 212-674-6095 or www.ifpda.org .
