Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Luis Camnitzer illustrates Martin Buber

Luis Camnitzer and Martin Buber (1878-1965), Luis Camnitzer Illustrates Martin Buber (New York: JMB Publishers Ltd, 1970). 10 woodcuts printed at The New York Graphic Workshop. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired Luis Camnitzer Illustrates Martin Buber, copy J, one of ten copies lettered A-J, each containing one original drawing by the artist and one double suite containing one suite of woodblock prints on Arches paper and one suite of woodblock prints on Natsume paper.

The portfolio includes ten folktales from the Hasidic Jewish tradition in Eastern Europe, selected by Camnitzer from the early masters section of Buber’s Die chassidischen Bücher as translated by Olga Marx. They are paired with ten woodcuts by Camnitzer titled: The Tap at the Window; The Helpful Mountain; The Deaf Man; How We Should Learn; Failure; Blessing of the Moon; To Say Torah and To Be Torah; The Mountain; The Bird Nest; and The Strong Thief.

“In 1964 after moving to New York from his native Uruguay, Camnitzer co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop, along with fellow artists, Argentine Liliana Porter and Venezuelan Guillermo Castillo (1941–1999). For six years until 1970, they examined the conceptual meaning behind printmaking, and sought to test and expand the definition of the medium. In 1964 Camnitzer wrote a manifesto on printmaking that was later adopted by the group as a statement of intent. In this text Camnitzer argues that printmaking should not restrict but rather amplify the possibilities of an artist to generate conceptually rich ideas through strong images.”—Alexander Gray Associates

See also: The New York Graphic Workshop, 1964-1970, edited by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Ursula Davila-Villa, Gina McDaniel Tarver ([Austin, Tex.]: Blanton Museum of Art, 2009). Marquand Library (SA) NE492.C63 N49 2009

Martin Buber (1878-1965), Die chassidischen Bücher (Berlin: Schocken, [1927]). Published in 1949 under title: Die Erzählungen der Chassidim. Recap BM198 .B778 1927

Forget Self-Driving Cars, Try Self-Walking Boots

Shortshanks (pseudonym for Robert Seymour, 1798-1836), Locomotion: Walking by Steam, Riding by Steam, Flying by Steam, ca. 1830. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection

Seymour is one a many nineteenth-century artists who made fun of early steam engines. This plate depicts various attempts including a steam-powered walking machine that controls a pair of boots; a teakettle carriage powered by gunpowder tea; and a steam-driven ornithopter. Each part of the machines are lettered; text to the right of the title reads, “For an explanation of the Machinery see the next Number of the Edinburg Review.”

Seymour used the pseudonym Shortshanks until George Cruikshank objected to the similarity and made him stop.

Shortshanks (pseudonym for Robert Seymour, 1798-1836), Locomotion. Plate 2nd, ca. 1830. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection

In the companion plate, each of these mechanisms has gone wrong. The fire in the boot-engine has gone out. The tea has exploded in the steam kettle carriage. And both the flying steam contraptions are in trouble. The subtitle reads: “A few small inconveniences. There’s nothing Perfect.”

In the early twentieth century, Connoisseur magazine printed photo-mechanical reproductions of important paintings and decorative arts, which subscribers could remove and frame. These prints were also sold individually or in large groups.

In the August 1905 Connoisseur, Sir Alfred Harmsworth wrote “Motor Prints,” an illustrated survey of Sir David Salomons’s satirical print collection featuring images of early steam locomotion. The text begins [his spelling], “This collection of prints pourtraying the struggles and triumphs of the pioneers of automobilism has an interest altogether apart from the appeal which it makes to the connoisseur.”

Perhaps the editors ran out of space in that issue because one last print was published in the September 1905 issue: a reproduction of Seymour’s Locomotion plate 2. Several prominent institutions, including the British Museum, have only the photo-mechanical reproduction in their collection.

W. L. Davis

Wayne Lambert Davis (1904-1988), By Way of Explanation on the Flight of the Autogiro, 1931. Drypoint. Edition: 5/25. Graphic Arts Collection GC014.

Wayne Lambert Davis (1904-1988) studied at the Art Student League in New York with Joseph Pennell, whose influence is apparent in Davis’s early drypoints. He completed a number of commissions, includes a large mural in the stairway of the former First National City Bank on 53rd Street in New York City. This is believed to have been destroyed but I have not been able to confirm that.

The Graphic Arts Collection has a small group of drypoints by Davis from the 1930s and 1940s, presumably acquired by Elmer Adler while he was at Princeton University.

Wayne Davis has felt the thrill and excitement of aviation and has chronicled various phases of flying for several years in sketchy, nervous water-colors packed with excitement and action. Planes rising from the deck of a carrier or circling through clouds with earth showing brokenly beneath; these he paints vividly if at times illustratively. Twoscore of his recentl papers may be seen this month at the Schwartz Galleries. Howard Devree, “A Reviewer’s Notebook,” New York Times December 6, 1936.

Here are a few more of Davis’s early prints in the collection.

The Republican Goose at the Top of the Poll

James Gillray (1756-1815), Election Candidates, Or the Republican Goose at the Top of the Pol(l)e. —the Devil Helping Behind! vide Mr. Paull’s Letter, article Home Tooke. Also an exact representation of Sawney M’Cockran (Lord Cochrane) flourishing the Cudgel of Naval Reform, lent him by Cobbett, and mounting triumphantly over a small Beer Barrel, together with an old Drury Lane Harlequin trying in vain to make a spring to the top of the pole, and slipping down again; and lastly, poor Little Paull, the Tailor done over! wounded by a Goose, and not a leg to stand on. May 20, 1807. Etching with hand color. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.01406

In this caricature, Gillray presents the five candidates for the Westminster election of 1807. The goose at the top of the election pole (poll) is the Republican Sir Francis Burdett (1770-1844) seen with a wounded leg but still in the winning position. This is one of at least seven caricatures that relate Burdett with a goose.

Beneath him is Lord Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860) with a ‘Reform’ club. The three losers at the bottom of the pole are the Tory John Elliot (active 19th century), Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), and finally James Paull (1770-1808). The writer John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) is represented as a Devil who supports Burdett with his pitchfork.

“[Tooke] was the only man in England to be imprisoned for supporting the American Revolution; his enthusiasm for the French Revolution landed him in court; he was a principal agitator for parliamentary reform . . . . He was a close associate of the greatest radicals of the time, including Burdett, Godwin and Tom Paine, and an unrivalled polemicist and brilliant conversationalist.” Christina Bewley, Gentleman Radical: Life of John Horne Tooke, 1736-1812 (DA506.T6 B49 1998)

Gillray locates the scene at the husting or meeting at which the candidates address the voting public at Covent Garden. The election results: Burdett 5,134, Cochrane 3,708, Sheridan 2,645, Elliott 2,137, and Paull 269 (who withdrew on 13 May). The new parliament assembled on Friday, June 26, 1807.

Printers Unite!

Birmingham City University, Marx Memorial Library, Newman University, The Centre for Printing History and Culture and the University of Birmingham are jointly sponsoring an interesting conference in November entitled: Printers Unite! Print and Protest from the Early Modern to the Present. To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/printers-unite-tickets-27724132627

‘Printers Unite!’ is a phrase that evokes the historic solidarities and struggles of printers and their eventual consolidation into a single trade union, Unite. On the 90th and 30th anniversaries of the General Strike and the Wapping Dispute, this two-day conference at the Marx Memorial Library will explore the role of printers and print as agents and vehicles of protest.

The General Strike, which was triggered by an unofficial strike by printers at the Daily Mail, and the Wapping Dispute, in which 6000 printers were sacked by News International, represent only one of the themes that emerges out of an examination of ‘print and protest’: that of the labor history of printing.

The keynote address will be delivered by Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews, author of The Invention of News and Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion.For more information see: http://www.cphc.org.uk/events/2015/11/10/printers-unite

A long list of papers includes
Dr Marie-Céline Daniel, Paris-Sorbonne University, London Printers v. Elizabeth I: How a group of London stationers tried to lobby in favour of a change in Elizabethan diplomacy, 1584-1589;
Kat Lowe, University of Manchester, The importance of female education to public health in the prefaces of Richard Hyrde;
Sally Jeffery, Independent researcher, Art and mystery: descriptions of seventeenth-century printers’ working practices;
Dr Lucy Razzall, Queen Mary, University of London, ‘Thrust into the trundle-bed of the last two lines’: printing theological debate in the 1640s;
Dr Bess Frimodig, Independent researcher, Domestic upheaval: women wallpaper printers and the French Revolution;
Eva Velasco Moreno, King Juan Carlos University, Censorship and the control of printing in eighteenth-century Spain;
Brian Shetler, Drew University, Advocate and abuser: John Wilkes’ relationship with his printers;
Karenza Sutton-Bennett, University of Ottawa, Hogarth’s act: a printer’s protest of society’s consumerism;
Julie Mellby, Princeton University, Edward Osborne and the Jamaica Rebellion broadside;
Dr Patricia Sieber, Ohio State University, Peter Perring Thoms (1755-1855) and the Radical opposition to the Opium War (1839-42);
Catherine Cartwright, Absence and Presence (evening exhibition);
Dr Anil Aykan, Independent researcher, Deeds and printed words;
Martin Killeen, University of Birmingham, Between the war zone and the Home Front: cartoons in military hospital magazines;
Alison Wilcox, University of Winchester, Defiant, dissenting, and disobedient women of the Great War;
Professor David Finkelstein, University of Edinburgh, Irish Typographical Union networks and the Great Dublin Strike of 1878;
Alexandra Heslop, Royal College of Art and V&A Museum, ‘Open Shop’: A re-assessment of London’s Printing Trades, 1980-1992;
Dr Patricia Thomas, Massey University, Lockout: insubordinate print and the New Zealand 1951 Waterfront Dispute;
Anthony Quinn, Independent researcher, Duplicating machines, dashes across Europe and nunneries: how emergency issues were produced by newspaper and magazine managements in response to strikes (1926-56);
Jessica Baines, London School of Economics and London College of Communication, Radical printshops, 1968-98;
Mark Dennis, Coventry University, Art & Language’s ‘Support School Project’ and inter-college networks through posters and pamphlets, 1974-79;
Dr Cathy Gale, Kingston University, Collective protest in print;
Dr Ian Horton, London College of Communication, The Grafische Werkplaats, hard werken and cultural protest;
David Sinfield, Auckland University, The serigraphic voice of the worker: stories of the underpaid worker through serigraphic printed posters;
Dr Mark Johnson, Independent Researcher, The work of Jamie Reid – prophet, provocateur and protester.

Nixon meets with Haldeman and Erlichman

Artist and reporter Franklin McMahon produced a series of documentary films in art that were aired on WBBM Television, Chicago and nationwide on CBS and PBS. The Portrait of an Election was a series of one-hour films using art and sound to document the national primaries, the Democratic and Republican conventions, and the presidential political campaigns.

McMahon’s painting seen above, now in the Graphic Arts Collection, was used in Portrait of an Election 1972, which received an Emmy for editing and an Emmy for best documentary. The entire series won a Peabody Award for McMahon.

During Richard Nixon’s successful 1968 presidential run, Franklin also drew the “unelected White House guys” (H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John N. Mitchell), that he correctly predicted would surround Nixon. This was one.

Franklin McMahon (1921-2012), President Richard M. Nixon meets with Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs John Erlichman. The White House, Washington, D.C., 1969. Provenance: from the collection of Margot McMahon. Graphic Arts Collection 2015- in process

The London Bridge Falling Down and Photographed

The iconic London Bridge has been built and rebuilt many times, beginning in 1176 with the first construction of a stone bridge approximately 24 feet long. Changes and complete reconstructions were made in 1281, 1309, 1425, 1437, 1580s, 1762, and 1831, among many other important dates. http://oldlondonbridge.com/history.shtml

Between 1968 and 1971, the facing stone of the 1831 Bridge, designed by John Rennie, was dismantled and shipped to Arizona, where it was reconstructed in Lake Havasu City. http://www.golakehavasu.com/about-us/london_bridge1.aspx. A completely new London Bridge was built to replace the Rennie bridge, opening to the pubic in 1972.

The Graphic Arts Collection is the fortunate new owner of a three volume set of albums (12 x 14 ½ inches) photographically documenting the dismantling and reconstruction of the 1972 London Bridge, now on deposit at Princeton University thanks to Bruce Willsie, Class of 1986.

Prepared by the London construction firm of John Mawlem & Company, Ltd. and labeled “Chairman’s Copy,” presumably as a presentation set, the albums include a combination of commercial photographs and personal prints, some hand-labeled and each sequenced for these volumes in particular.

There are approximately 200 black and white gelatin silver prints, each one annotated in the lower right hand corners and dated. In great detail they show every phase of the dismantling of the old 1830s bridge and the building of the new bridge in the same location. The excavation of the site reveled several skeletons, documented in these photographs.

These albums are now available for researchers.

The Metropolitan Tabernacle and Its Institutions

The Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon at Home. Study Portrait.

An 1882 book review of The Metropolitan Tabernacle and its Institutions (London: Passmore and Alabaster) and Glimpses of Home at Westwood (London: Passmore and Alabaster) published in the journal The Sword and the Trowel, written and edited by evangelist Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), reads:

“These are two beautiful volumes of photographs, which will be specially interesting adornments for the drawing rooms of our friends. The views of Westwood are singularly charming and artistic. Mr. Tom Brine [interior designer] excels in this department. We do not suppose that a large edition of these works of art will be issued, and, indeed, we have no particular desire to see them sold except to our very special friends. To these we commend them very heartily.”

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have become one of Spurgeon’s special friends, acquiring a very rare copy of his Metropolitan Tabernacle and its Institutions. The volume offers twenty-four striking Woodburytypes, credited to the Woodbury Permanent Photographic Printing Company, and an introduction by Vernon J. Charlesworth (1839-1915), one of the Ministering Elders of the Tabernacle.

This is certainly the most luxurious book published by Joseph Passmore (1823-1895) and his partner James Alabaster (1826-1892), who printed all of Spurgeon’s sermons from 1855 forward, as well as his memoirs, journals, and numerous other publications.

Considered the largest church in London at that time, the Tabernacle opened on March 18, 1861. Designed by William Wilmer Pocock (1813-1899), the main auditorium seated 5,000 people, with standing room for another 1000. In addition, there was a Pastor’s College; the Tabernacle Almshouses and School; and the Stockwell Orphanage. Spurgeon served as the charismatic pastor of the congregation until his death in 1892.

For a brief biography of Spurgeon, see: http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/sermons/chsbio.html

The Stockwell Orphanage. The Dining Hall – Interior.

The Pastor’s College. The Library.

Below, some of the children of the Stockwell Orphanage.The Metropolitan Tabernacle and its institutions, with an introduction by Vernon J. Charlesworth (London: Passmore and Alabaster, [1882]). 24 woodburytypes. Inscribed “Jas. Harvey Esq. with the grateful love of Ch. Spurgeon, Feb. 82. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process.

Princeton’s Paul Robeson

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this photograph of Paul Robeson (1898-1976) taken by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) on June 1, 1944. Robeson is posing in his costume for a production of Othello. The print will be on view this fall at the Princeton University Art Museum in our exhibition “Remember Me” in honor of Shakespeare’s anniversary.

In August 1942, the Daily Princetonian announced that “Paul Robeson Will Appear in Othello at 8:40 in [McCarter Theater]. Margaret Webster Stages Coming Play, Seventh Production of Princeton Playgoers. Lead Player was born here. Production Had Premiere Last Monday in Cambridge, Mass.— Unlikely To Move into New York.”

“Paul Robeson returns to Princeton, where he grew up, this evening as star and titled player of Margaret Webster’s new production of Shakespeare’s Othello, which opens at 8:40 in McCarter Theatre as the seventh and next to last production of Richard Skinner’s Princeton Playgoers for this season. This week’s presentation in McCarter marks the only performance by Mr. Robeson of Othello in this area. … Margaret Webster … will play the part of Emelia. Jose Ferrer ’33 … has been cast as Iago. His wife, Uta Hagen … will be Mr. Robeson’s Desdemona. Miss Webster’s company includes Philip Huston, William Widdecombe, William Woodson, George Keane, Ernest Graves, Alfred Etcheverry, Russell Collins, John Ireys and Robert Harrison.”

“Mr. Robeson … was born and grew up in Princeton. He attended elementary school and high school here, before graduating from Rutgers University with a Phi Betta Kappa key. … Alexander Woollcott, as dramatic critic of the old New York World, said of Robeson that ‘of all the countless people I have known in my wanderings about the world, Robeson is one of the few who, I would say, had true greatness.’”

The Mudd Library holds the records of the Princeton Playgoers, 1941-1942 [Mudd AC315], including Othello. Their record notes “Princeton Playgoers, Inc. was a theater production company formed in 1942, during the wartime period when the engagements of Triangle Club were limited. The records consist of financial records, correspondence, records of ticket sales, advertisements, contracts, and other materials documenting the planning and production of plays at McCarter Theatre in the summer of 1942.”

Sergeant Kendall’s Portrait of Robert Blum

William Sergeant Kendall (1869-1938), Portrait of Robert Blum for “Robert Blum’s Great Decorative Painting in January Scribner’s”, no date [1895]. Pastel painting. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02621

Sergeant Kendall designed three posters for Scribner & Company that were lithographed by J. E. Rhodes. One presents a full length portrait of the artist Robert Blum (1857-1903). The poster, probably completed in December 1895, announced an article about Blum’s recently completed mural for the Mendelssohn Hall in New York, published in Scribner’s January 1896 issue. Kendall’s other two posters offer similar portraits of Charles Dana Gibson and Charles Stanley Reinhart for Scribner’s articles.

“Alfred Corning Clark, in addition to his interest in music, was a patron of the visual arts. As part of the decoration of the interior of Mendelssohn Hall, as the new building on 40th Street was called, Clark commissioned Robert Frederick Blum, muralist, colorist, and illustrator, to do twin panels for either side of the proscenium arch in the concert hall. The first, begun in 1893 and completed in 1895, was called “Moods of Music.” The frieze was 50 feet long and 12 feet high. Later, Blum completed the companion piece, a canvas of equal size entitled “Feast of Bacchus.”

The Graphic Arts Collection holds Kendall’s pastel portrait of Blum, completed for Scribner’s poster. For many years, the attribution was incorrectly switched, described as a portrait of Kendall rather than of Blum. Happily this has now been corrected.

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