SAGA Fine Print Exhibition and Handing It Down
May 18 @ 5:30 pm - July
1 @ 4:00 pm
Beginning this May, the
Artists Archives is thrilled to host a Fine Print Exhibition featuring
the Society
of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), one of the nation’s oldest
organizations dedicated to creative printmaking. Based in New York City, SAGA was founded in 1915 to
promote the advancement of the graphic arts. Over their 108-year history, they
have exhibited such preeminent modern artists as Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt,
Käthe Kollwitz, Edward Hopper, Joseph Pennell, and Pablo Picasso, and continue
to count some of the world’s most accomplished printmakers among their ranks.
The exhibition at the Artists
Archives will include over 50 prints produced by their internationally renowned
membership. Juror Mindy
Tousley describes, “As one would expect from such an esteemed organization, the
work submitted was emblematic of the quality and professionalism of its
members. While the chosen pieces varied widely, there was a common bond
expressed among the artists, and that was the love they held for
printmaking…this exhibition is a celebration of their years of experience and
love of the art form.”
“I get excited about ink
and paper,” German born artist Dirk Hagner effuses. “The textures, the subtle build-up of sheen in
successive ink layers, the gentle dimensionality impressions leave on the
sheet, the feel of the printing blocks, the sounds, and scents – it’s the whole
mix. It is seductive, challenging, often surprising, and always exhilarating.”
The artists’ passion for
their medium translates directly into their technical prowess. The exhibition boasts several reduction relief prints,
referred to by Picasso as “suicide prints” because of the inability to make
corrections as the block is cut away to produce layers of color. Also on
display are jaw-dropping mezzotints which achieve a velvet-soft tonality by
pitting a metal plate with thousands of interlocking dots. Converge by Jayne Reid
Jackson, for example, highlights the medium’s pastel quality by depicting a
pool of glass marbles in photorealistic detail. Ringed by a circle of upturned
crabs, the articulated white bellies and the glittering orbs reflect the light
in a dramatic scene of tabletop chiaroscuro.
In addition to being
masters of their physical craft, the printmakers selected for the exhibition
are also masters of observation. With laser-like precision, the artists capture the heartbeat of a city or
the delicate cycles of nature on a printing plate and call forth their images
for our reflection. As artist Alan Petrulis explains, “To truly experience this
world, one must not just look but learn to see and listen. Places that speak to
me become points of translation, points to be transcribed onto paper in a
language made of a thousand little lines and marks. Some of these voices are
deeply fixed in the land. Some arrive through fleeting moments like when a
stoplight turns red and a truck halts in front of a street mural to open a
dialog…”
Printmaking has the uncanny ability to strip away life’s
cacophony to reveal the essence of a time and place. This
meditative subtraction can be seen in Susan Jaworski-Stranc’s relief
print And So…It Comes Every Year, which
distills the swirling chaos of a forest fire brought on by climate change down
to dynamic blocks of fiery orange, green and dousing blue. Another piece, Dreams Over Brooklyn, by Karen
Whitman, converts the dazzle of a city’s color and detail to an impactful,
pulsing vignette of line, contrast, and form.
For Whitman, so too does
the labor of her practice serve as a reinforcement of her personal values. “The physicality and rigor of carving and
printing reminds me daily of the hard work and patience it takes to accomplish
most anything meaningful,” she explains. “I am also determined in this world of
push-button images and shortcuts of convenience, to keep the tradition of
making hand-pulled prints alive, as they enhance the richness of the experience
of appreciating art ~ and of being a human being.”
The SAGA Fine
Print Exhibition will be celebrated with an in-person opening
reception on Thursday, May 18th 5:30 – 8:00pm. Four exhibition awards will be sponsored by The Print
Club of Cleveland, and will be juried by Dr. Emily J. Peters, Curator of Prints
and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
To accompany the show, the
Artists Archives will also present Handing It Down, an exhibition
featuring prints from the Jack and Linda Lissauer Collection. Curated by Jack Lissauer, the show will focus on
artists who are also educators dedicated to passing down the knowledge of their
craft to the next generation.
A variety of exciting
programming will also support the SAGA Fine Print Exhibition. On
Wednesday, May 31st 7:00 – 8:00pm the Archives will host the virtual program From
Stone to Silicone: The Future of Printmaking with Michael Menchaca and
Maggie Denk-Leigh. How has the
technology of printmaking evolved? And what current digital innovations are
shaping the print world today? Join renowned contemporary printmaker Michael
Menchaca and the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Printmaking Department Chair
Maggie Denk-Leigh as they provide a fascinating overview of the evolution of
fine art printing and look ahead to its exciting future through the lens of
Menchaca’s socially engaged digital and multimedia work. REGISTER ON ZOOM
On Wednesday, June 21st 7:00 – 8:00pm, Dr.
Emily J. Peters, Cleveland Museum of Art’s Curator of Prints and Drawings, will
discuss her selections for the SAGA Fine Print Exhibition Awards. Peters will be joined by Diego Briceno, Vice
President of SAGA, Mindy Tousley, Exhibition Juror, and the award-winning
artists who will provide fascinating insight into their pieces in the
show. REGISTER ON ZOOM
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