Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

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.

Printed with Axle Grease over Caviar

Princeton University Library holds one copy of every book created by the contemporary artist Ed Ruscha. Moving some books require extra help because of their size, such as Ruscha’s News, Mews, Pews, Brews, Stews, & Dues (London: Editions Alecto, 1970). Graphic Arts Collection. Copy 77 of 125, plus 25 AP.

Each of the six organic screen prints in this portfolio is 23 x 31 inches (58.4 x 78.7 cm), housed in a red velvet-covered box 24 5/8 x 33 1/4 inches (62.6 x 84.1 cm). To open on the table, it needs six feet of clear space. Thank you to Brianna Cregle for her help with it.

Each print is made with different and unexpected organic materials, such as News, which was printed with blackcurrant pie filling over red salmon roe. In a 1970 interview included in this volume, Ruscha said he liked the incongruous elements. “The pleasure of it is both in the wit and the absurdity of the combination. I mean the idea of combining axle grease and caviar!” He went on to say “New mediums encourage me. I still paint in oil paint. But what I’m interested in is illustrating ‘ideas’.”

The illustration above shows the various organic materials used in making this portfolio. Below are the recipes for each individual print. The pseudo-Gothic font was, for Ruscha, an expression of English culture and the words a reaction to his enjoyment with actual London mews while living there.

Axle grease over caviar.

Hershey’s chocolate flavor syrup and Camp coffee and chicory essence. Squid in the ink.

Miller Brothers 101 Ranch

A number of items have been rescued as we are packing for the move. The chromolithographed poster seen above was found in the back of a drawer and had to be conserved and repaired. It will soon be catalogued and available for research.

I recommend this film about the rise and fall of Oklahoma’s 101 Ranch, posted by the Oklahoma Historical Society for the WKY KTVY KFOR Archives (published on Nov 25, 2013).

“The historical overview begins from the conception of the 101 in 1879 by George W. Miller and then traces the development and successes of the ranch by Miller’s three sons: George Miller, Jr., Joe Miller, and Zack Miller. As the Miller brothers found success in agricultural endeavors, they established the 101’s headquarters, the White House, in Ponca City, OK. There they established a self-efficient community with its own roads, bridges, power plant, meat-packing industry, telephone company, their own form of money (the Bronc), etc.

Footage covers the 101’s Apple Blossom Day events, the 1905 Convention of the National Editorial Association, The Wild West Show established in 1913, and Cherokee Strip Cowpunchers Association footage from the 1920s, and The Terapin Roundup and Derby which started in 1924. The relationship between the Ponca Indians and the Miller brothers, as well as the contributions the Ponca Tribe made to the 101 shows is discussed at length. Footage from the film Recreation of 1889 includes the original cast.

The memorial sites of Bill Pickett, one of the “greatest”, African American rodeo performers of all time and Chief White Eagle of the Ponca Indian Tribe are featured. Final footage covers Colonel Joe Miller’s traditional Ponca Memorial Service, George Miller’s funeral service, and the ruins of the White House and 101 Ranch.”

See also: Michael Wallis, The Real Wild West: the 101 Ranch and the creation of the American West (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999). Forrestal Annex F704.A15 W34 1999

Satire on Perspective by Hogarth

Double checking our collection today to make sure we do hold the frontispiece engraving by William Hogarth (1697-1764) often forgotten by print curators. The scene offers many deliberate examples of confused and misplaced perspectives.

“Whoever makes a Design, without the Knowledge of Perspective, will be liable to such Absurdities as are shewn in this Frontispiece.”

William Hogarth, frontispiece for John Joshua Kirby (1716-1774), Dr. Brook Taylor’s method of perspective made easy, both in theory and practice … Being an attempt to make the art of perspective easy and familiar; to adapt it intirely [sic] to the arts of design; and to make it an entertaining study to any gentleman who shall chuse [sic] so polite an amusement (Ipswich: printed by W. Craighton, for the author, 1754). Rare Books (Ex) NA2710 .K5 1754

Massacre of the French King!

In this engraving, one man is already face down in the guillotine and a second, being tied to a board, will be next. Neither is Louis XVI.

Massacre of the French King! View of La Guillotine; or the Modern Beheading Machine, at Paris. By which the unfortunate Louis XVI (late King of France) suffered on the Scaffold, January 21st, 1793. Engraving and letterpress broadside. London: printed at the Minerva Office, for William Lane, and retail by E[Lizabeth] Harlow, Pall-Mall; Edwards, Bond-Street; Shepherd and Reynolds, Oxford-Street; . . . and all other Booksellers. Where may be had an exact and authenticated copy of his Will, Prince One-Pence, 1793. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process

“In London, the charismatic William Lane (ca. 1745-1814)) founded the Minerva Press in 1790, issuing remarkable numbers of sensational novels until he was succeeded upon his death by his partner A. K. Newman, who continued the business (although he gradually dropped the ‘Minerva Press’ name) through the 1820s. During the 1790s Minerva published fully a third of all the novels produced in London.” –Stuart Curran, The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

“By 1791 Lane employed a workforce of thirty and had four printing presses . . . Most were formulaic Gothic ‘German’ romances, produced in editions of 500 or 750 and never reprinted. ‘Minerva press’ novel became a common term to describe a particular type of light society romance or thriller, much condemned in conduct literature.” –William St. Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

“When William Lane . . . published his broadside account of the execution on January 29, he priced it at sixpence, with a discount for bulk purchases of one hundred; a few days later he halved the original price, and offered a still more generous discount to those willing to act as agents to distribute the sheet, expressing the hope that it would be circulated ‘in every village throughout the three kingdoms.’

In a long advertisement announcing these reductions, Lane described his wish that ‘this horrid and unjust sacrifice . . . should be known to all classes of people, and in particular to the honest and industrious Artisan and manufacturer, who might be deluded by the false and specious pretences of artful and designing persons.’” –Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker, Refiguring Revolutions: Aesthetics and Politics from the English Revolution to the Romantic Revolution (University of California Press, 1998)

Shin moyō hinagata

The Graphic Arts Collection holds a small group of Japanese sketchbooks or design books with little additional information. This one has been labeled simply Shin moyō hinagata, and appears to focus on birds and insects. The calligraphy on the publication stamp is very difficult to read but if you can add to our information, please let us know.

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