September 26, 2011, Featured Articles, Pacific Standard Time

Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California

Sun, Sep 25, 2011

Drawing from the Museum’s extensive print collection and a few select loans, the exhibition includes approximately 150 prints, portfolios and multiples, including works by the local founders of the movement, such as John Altoon, Garo Antreasian, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha and June Wayne. Proof also includes works by a significant number of artists who traveled west to print specifically in Los Angeles, such as Josef Albers, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg.

Printmaking had for centuries been explored by painters and sculptors alike—most notably Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes and Pablo Picasso—but it was not embraced by the 20th-century American avant-garde, though there were a few exceptions. In 1960, Los Angeles–based artist June Wayne took it upon herself to “create a pool of master artisan-printers in the United States.” These words were spoken at the founding of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles by Wayne, who, through her dedication and hard work, created a workshop that would educate printers, artists, curators and collectors alike. Indeed, Tamarind sparked a renaissance in the graphic arts—a revival that spread well beyond Los Angeles and the medium of lithography. In the next few decades, all methods of printmaking would be established and legitimized as viable and valuable forms of art making.

Throughout the 1960s, Tamarind opened its doors to artists both experienced and inexperienced in printmaking. Many world-renowned painters and sculptors made the journey to Los Angeles to learn the craft at Tamarind. The artists’ two-month fellowships were staggered so that no two artists were new at the same time. Wayne established the editioning of prints so that twenty from each edition went to the artist, and nine went to Tamarind. In this way, the workshop was able to donate a complete set of every work it produced to nine public institutions, thereby spreading the knowledge of printmaking and building enthusiasm for the medium among curators and collectors. The Norton Simon Museum is home to a near-complete set of prints created at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California features nearly 70 of these works.

The artists represented range from John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, David Hockney, Ed Moses, Lee Mullican, Louise Nevelson, Ed Ruscha, and Norman Zammitt, to June Wayne herself.

In addition to works from Tamarind, the exhibition includes prints created at Gemini G.E.L., a lithography workshop established in Los Angeles in 1966 by master printer Ken Tyler and business partners Sidney Felsen and Stanley Grinstein. During its first decade, Gemini was known for working with East Coast–based artists, and the exhibition features works by Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella. Proof also features a select group of prints created at Cirrus Editions, which was founded in 1970 by Jean Milant after his nearly two-year tenure as a printer at Tamarind. Unlike Gemini, Cirrus focused on Los Angeles–based artists. In this exhibition, works by John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Charles Christopher Hill and Greg Card are featured. Finally, several important examples of early local etching, screenprinting and lithography are presented, including works from the 1920s through the 1950s by such artists as Clinton Adams, Leonard Edmondson, Ynez Johnston, Paul Landacre and Rico LeBrun. All of the artworks have been selected to illustrate the
variety of materials employed by artists, including ink on paper, acetate and uncommon synthetics, as well as the variety of forms, including portfolios, photolithos and three-dimensional prints. Special attention has been given to both artists and printers.

Altogether, the artworks featured in Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California tell the fascinating but seldom-explored story of the renaissance of fine-art lithography in Los Angeles in the 20th century. Starting with small local efforts in the first half of the century, to June Wayne and the founding of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in the 1960s, and on to the establishment of Gemini G.E.L. and Cirrus Editions in the mid-1960s and 1970s, printmaking became an essential medium in an artist’s oeuvre, and Los Angeles was the birthplace of this effort. What is more, the exhibition illustrates how some of the era’s most cutting-edge artists transformed the medium, pushing the boundaries of what was possible with their embrace of new materials and techniques.

About “The Original Print,” a companion exhibition

In conjunction with Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California, the Museum presents The Original Print, an exhibition that looks at the technical aspects of printmaking. Held in the small, rotating gallery on the Museum’s main level, the exhibition combines explanatory texts, archival documentation, photographs, video footage and the actual implements of printmaking (a woodblock, an etching plate, a lithography stone and a screen). A select group of prints on view serves to illustrate these concepts directly, in an effort to familiarize visitors with the methods and terminology used to describe the graphic arts.

Images courtesy of Norton Simon Museum

Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899–1991), Mask, 1964, Lithograph, Sheet: 22 x 18 in. (55.9 x 45.7 cm), Printed by Michael Knigin, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1967
© D.R. Rufino Tamayo/Herederos/Méxi­co/2011

Louise Nevelson (American, 1899–1988), Untitled, 1967, Lithograph, Overall: 43 x 46 in. (109.2 x 116.8 cm), Printed by Anthony Ko, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1969
© 2011 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lee Mullican (American, 1919–1998), Sleeping Gypsy, 1964, Lithograph, Sheet: 20 x 25 3/4 in. (50.8 x 65.4 cm), Printed by Ernest Rosenthal, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift
© Estate of Lee Mullican

John Altoon (American, 1925–1969), Untitled, 1965, Lithograph, Sheet: 22 x 30 in. (55.9 x 76.2 cm), Printed by Ken Tyler, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1967
© 2011 Estate of John Altoon, Braunstein/Quay Gallery

More Featured Articles