A recent offer of Latin American posters led to a search of the Graphic Arts Collection’s 114 screen printed posters designed by the Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004). From 1951 to 1956 Homar worked as a graphic artist and director of the Graphics Section of Division de Educación a la Comunidad (DivEdCo) and in 1957 organized the Graphic Arts Workshop at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, which he directed until 1973.

“Earning my living as an artist-craftsman,” wrote Homar in 1960, “I try to honor my trade with the maximum of my efforts regardless of the type of work involved. A seal, an illustration or an idea for a painting or engraving; everything that happens around us is worthwhile looking at.”

Homar was one of the first designers profiled when the American Institute of Graphic Arts began their “design journeys” series in 2005. “Lorenzo Homar was a pivotal figure of the fields of design and plastic arts during the second part of the 20th century. While his artistic production encompassed a large number of works across an array of media, his largest contribution to Puerto Rican arts was through his posters and printed engravings. He was a leader behind the popularization and internalization of the afiche, a commemorative medium equivalent to the poster. As a graphic designer and artist, Homar served as a teacher, a mentor and an inspiration for a group of Puerto Rican artists who collectively became known as Generación del Cincuenta (Generation of the Fifties).” http://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-lorenzo-homar/

The posters, along with several hundred other drawings, prints, carved blocks, and other work has been digitized and can be enjoyed at: http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0033 .

Update: previously listed as a poster, the following is a signed and numbered fine art print:

Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004), Quote from José de Diego (1866-1918), 1971. Serigraph. Signed and numbered 33/35. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.04022. “De la tormenta el iracundo empuje. No has de balar como el cordero triste, sino rugir,como la fiera ruge! ¡Levantate, Revuelvete, Resiste! ¡Haz como el toro acorralado: muge! ¡O como el toro que no muge : embiste!”

The Graphic Arts Collection holds 74 original drawings by the Philadelphia artist Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964). By far the largest is this 4 x 5 foot pastel design labeled on the verso “wine festival,” possibly for The Century Association in New York where Bendiner was an active member.

Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964), Wine Festival, [1953]. Pastel. Approximately 122 x 150 cm. (4 x 5 feet). GC034 Alfred Bendiner Collection. Gift of Alfred and Elizabeth Bendiner Foundation.

Transcription: “Prétendre qu’il ne faut pas changer de vins est une hérésie ; la langue se sature ; et, après le troisième verre, le meilleur vin n’éveille plus qu’une sensation obtuse” (To argue that we should not change the wine at dinner is heresy; the tongue becomes saturated; and after the third glass, the best wine arouses no more than a dull sensation) — Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Benjamin Tanner (1775-1848) after Charles Canda, General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York [membership certificate], no date [1820s]. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2008.00302

According to the Mechanics Society literature, “Mechanics Institutes were educational establishments formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men and, later, women. The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York was founded in 1785 by the skilled craftsmen of the City.”

In 1820, the General Society opened one of New York City’s first free schools as well as the Apprentices’ Library and in 1858, elected to convert its school into a Mechanics Institute that would “provide training to those citizens whose work obligations prevented their pursuit of a formal technical education.”

The New York Evening Post, November 8, 1832

The first certificate of the Society was issued to William Wright in July, 1790. The 9 x 11 1/2 inch sheets were designed, engraved, and printed by Abraham Goodwin (1763-1835) in 1786 and each one filled in by hand with a large, wax seal at the bottom (certificate no. 196, seen above, is held in the collection of the Winterthur Museum).

From that time forward, the Society budgeted funds for the printing of member certificates. “Be it further ordained, That there shall be a plate engraved for the purpose of striking off the certificates of admission; that each member shall be entitled to a certificate, which shall be presented to him by the Secretary, dated from the commencement of his membership, free from any cost or expense, at any time not exceeding two months from the time he was initiated.”–Annals of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York (1882).

Historians disagree as to the date that Charles Canda was engaged to redesign a nineteenth century certificate, engraved by the noted Philadelphia studio of Benjamin Tanner, but it was some time after 1820. This version prominently featured the Society’s motto: To dry the tear from misery’s eye. To succour the afflicted and to save the sinking is our aim.

The façade of the Mechanics Bank of New York, opened in 1810 at nos. 31 and 33 Nassau Street, featured a bronze casting of a mechanic’s brawny arm and hand wielding a hammer.
The Church & Dwight Company developed the Arm & Hammer logo for their baking soda in 1867. The American Socialist Party began using the same symbol a few years later.

Glasgow Print Studio was founded in 1972 as an artist led initiative providing facilities and workshop space to artists using fine art printmaking. Now, as an internationally acclaimed center of excellence in fine art printmaking, the Studio promotes contemporary and innovative printmaking through supporting artists, exhibitions, learning and conservation.

On the fourth floor, the workshop facilities include a Takach motorized etching press, a Rochat etching press, a Columbian Eagle press (seen above) and a Bewick and Wilson “Clydesdale” motorized press.

Over 200 artist members are allowed access to the workshop. A system of session fees, paid daily, quarterly or yearly contributes to the cost of consumables provided by the workshop such as inks, solvents and related print chemistry, rags and cleaning materials. Members can also exhibit in Studio’s gallery and sell in the retail gallery. http://www.glasgowprintstudio.co.uk/

This underwater battle scene appears to be quite rare among the Sino-Japanese war prints designed by the artist Kobayashi Toshimitsu (active 1877-1904). Information about the artist himself is also limited.

The Graphic Arts Collection holds two copies of Toshimitsu’s more popular print Our Army’s Great Victory at the Night Battle of Pyongyang (Heijô yasen wagahei daishôri) seen further below. They both have the artist’s seal: Suidô shujin, and each include graphic depictions of war.

Kobayashi Toshimitsu (act. 1877-1904), Oryokko okino daikaisen (Great naval battle off the bank of the Yalu River), no date. Color woodblock triptych. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Professor Marius Jansen, Class of 1944.

Kobayashi Toshimitsu (active 1877-1904), Our Army’s Great Victory at the Night Battle of Pyongyang (Heijô yasen wagahei daishôri), Meiji era (September 1894). Color woodblock print. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Professor Marius Jansen, Class of 1944.

Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908), The Fall of Fenghuangcheng: The Enemy Giving Up (Hoojo kanraku tekihei kaiso no zu), Meiji era (November 1894). Color woodblock triptych. Akiyama Buemon, publisher (active ca. 1882–1910s). Graphic Arts Collection GC153. Gift of Professor Marius Jansen, Class of 1944.

An uncatalogued box of Japanese prints was requested recently and we found two dozen sensō-e or war pictures. The majority are triptychs or diptychs from the Sino-Japanese War (August 1894 to April 1895) between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, primarily over control of Korea.

A number were designed by Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908, born Mizuno Kumejiro). In the late 1890s, the war stimulated a short-lived revival of ukiyo printmaking and hundreds of designs were made and quickly sold. Toshikata was among the best of the artists who sold their designs during this short time period.

Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908), Japanese Warships Fire on the Enemy near Haiyang Island (Kaiyôtô fukin teikoku gunkan happô no zu) Meiji era (September 1894). Color woodblock triptych. Akiyama Buemon, publisher (active ca. 1882-1910s). Graphic Arts Collection GC153. Gift of Professor Marius Jansen, Class of 1944.

“Artists and publishers also benefited from the repeal of Japan’s strict censorship laws in 1872. With these laws no longer in place, prints could be more lavish than ever before, and artists were free to depict current events—a practice that had been forbidden under censorship legislation.” Pain’s Pyrotechnic Spectacle, Mead Art Museum.

The prints are from the collection of Marius Berthus Jansen (Class of 1944, 1922-2000), a world-renown scholar and Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at Princeton University. “At Princeton, where he received the Howard Behrman Award for excellence in teaching in the humanities, Jansen was a devoted member of the history department, as well as the director of the Program in East Asian Studies (1962-68), and the first chairman of the newly formed Department of East Asian Studies (1969-72). He was a stimulating undergraduate teacher and a demanding, incisive advisor for generations of graduate students in East Asian history. Upon his retirement from Princeton University in 1992, Jansen was named Emeritus Professor of Japanese History.”

Attributed to Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908), [Sino-Japanese war], Meiji era (1894). Color woodblock triptych. Graphic Arts Collection GC153. Gift of Professor Marius Jansen, Class of 1944.