Venice

Giovanni Battista Brustolon (1712-1796), after Canaletto (1697-1768), Dextrorsum Theresiani sinistrorsum S. Simeon Parvus atq. Fullonium, 1700s. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GC094 Italian Prints.

Teresa Shawcross, Assistant Professor of History, will be teaching a class entitled “Venice and the Mediterranean World,” beginning next Monday. “Venice,” she writes, “from unpromising beginnings on a marshy lagoon, succeeded in becoming a major commercial and territorial power that by the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance sought to rival the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires and dominate much of the Mediterranean world.”

In browsing through the Graphic Arts collection, we find a limited number of Italian prints and even fewer focused on Venice. There are a handful of reproductive prints after the paintings of Canaletto (born Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768), engraved by Giovanni Battista Brustolon (sometimes written Brustoloni, 1712-1796).

Graphic Arts also holds two prints by Michele Giovanni Marieschi (1696-1743) from the book Magnificentiores selectioresque urbis Venetiarum prospectus (Venetiis: Venduntur … apud eumdem Auctorem, 1741). A complete volume can be found in Marquand Library (SAX): Rare Books Oversize ND623.M22 A3e.

Giovanni Battista Brustolon (1712-1796), after Canaletto (1697-1768), Vocte Festum Sanctae Marthae praecendente Piscatorum Navilia facibus ornata, eodem favente Austro, huc, illuc per aequora discurrunt, 1700s. Engraving. GC094 Italian Prints Collection

Giovanni Battista Brustolon (1712-1796) after Canaletto (1697-1768), Qua late patet S. Marci area major S. Jeminiani Templum, [1763]. Engraving. GC094 Italian Prints Collection

Michele Giovanni Marieschi (1696-1743), Platea ac Templum D: D: Joannis et Pauli et proxime magnum Sodalitium D from the book Magnificentiores selectioresque urbis Venetiarum prospectus (Venetiis: Venduntur … apud eumdem Auctorem, 1741). Engraving. GC094 Italian Prints Collection

Michele Giovanni Marieschi (1696-1743), Forum minus D: Marci ab asteruariis conspectum, cum carceribus, et Curia ad dexteram from the book Magnificentiores selectioresque urbis Venetiarum prospectus (Venetiis: Venduntur … apud eumdem Auctorem, 1741). Engraving. GC094 Italian Prints Collection.

Enveloppe-moi

Annette Messager and Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Enveloppe-moi (New York: Museum of Modern Art Library Council, 2013). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

According to the Museum of Modern Art Library prospectus, “Enveloppe-moi, by Annette Messager, is the ninth in a series of artists’ books and editions published by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art. This edition, conceived by the artist in Paris, comes to readers as something found deep in a closet or tucked under a bed, ready to be opened and brought back to light. Within separate enclosures, a handmade box contains a postcard correspondence between the artist and the writer/artist Jean-Philippe Toussaint; a letter and a photograph by Toussaint; and 10 photographic collages by Messager.

These contents could be souvenirs of an intensely imagined or experienced liaison, or clues to a secret history. The whole represents an enigmatic visual and verbal exchange.

Over a five-month period in 2011, Messager sent 15 postcards, one by one, to Toussaint. Each card features on one side a black-and-white photograph of one of Messager’s preexisting artworks. The collection of postcard images presents a series of indefinite but suggestive images of obscured words, phrases, nets, and body parts.

Toussaint replied on the blank side of each postcard with brief comments, questions, and literary references apparently prompted by the image on the opposite side. A second set of postcards reproduces the same artworks by Messager, but these postcards are still blank on the writer’s side. At the artist’s suggestion, readers may consider sending the “virgin” postcards (as the artist describes them) to another correspondent.Messager also created 10 collages that visualize emotionally heightened (and slightly ironic) scenes from a fictional romance: a manipulated photograph of the artist as a young woman, trapped in a spider web–like net; a B-movie style image of a lover’s kiss; a playful, doodled image of a floating mermaid overlaying a dark installation of photographic memorabilia; artworks based on graphic representations of words such as “chaos,” “trouble,” and “hotel-fiction”—these and other images are as fantastical and personally expressive as the postcard exchange is restrained. They deepen the mystery of the boxed collection. Nine of these collages appear as pigment prints in the center well of the portfolio.

A tenth collage is stamped onto the cloth-covered box. (This collage also appears as an additional pigment print in the deluxe edition.) Messager’s handwritten title, Enveloppe-moi, is silkscreened on the red cloth covers of the box and two additional images are silkscreened on the inside of the box.

During the five-month correspondence, Toussaint photographed the quotidian circumstances in which he wrote on his side of Messager’s postcards. One digitally printed photograph by Toussaint, of a hand dropping a postcard into a postbox slot, can be found within a slot on an inside flap of the portfolio, along with Toussaint’s digitally printed letter.

Messager designed the portfolio and its contents in collaboration with the co-editors, the designer, and the binder. This edition was edited and produced for The Museum of Modern Art’s Library Council by May Castleberry, Editor, Contemporary Editions, MoMA Library Council, and Céline Fribourg, Founder, éditions Take5, Geneva. The text, the colophon page, and one of the title images were designed by Philippe Apeloig in Paris. The portfolio was bound and assembled by Mark Tomlinson in Easthampton, Massachusetts, using silkscreen-printed and stamped covers created by Annette Messager. “

Last Paintings of the Week

Sakari Suzuki, American, born Japan, 1899-1995. [Street Scene] 1937. Oil on canvas. Rare Books and Special Collections, Firestone Library

During the 1930s, Sakari Suzuki was living in New York City and working for the Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration. Most of his time was spent painting a mural entitled “Preventive Medicine” at the Willard Parker Hospital on East 16th Street along the East River. His figurative designs for the Hospital were exhibited at the WPA Federal Gallery, alongside Moses Soyer, Arshile Gorky, and other artists. Unfortunately, the hospital was demolished in 1958, along with Suzuki’s mural. Although he was an active member of the American Artist Congress, this painting of an unidentified street corner is one of the few works by Suzuki that survives.

More paintings will be hung in March and another group over the summer. This will continue for several years until the renovation of Firestone Library is complete.

Modern Editions Press

Texas-born Kathleen Tankersley Young (1903–1933) published a book of Ten Poems in 1930 and along with Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler, was one of the founding publishers of the literary magazine Blues: a Magazine of New Rhymes (1929-1930). When the magazine closed, she planned a new journal under her own imprint, Modern Editions Press, published by Eric Naul.

The Modern Editions Press published two series of pamphlets in 1932 and 1933. The first series consisted of six pamphlets which included short stories, poems, and a statement. The six contributors were Dudley Fitts, John Kemmerer, Kay Boyle, Kathleen Tankersley Young, Raymond Ellsworth Larsson and Albert Halper; each one illustrated with an original print by a contemporary American artist.

The second and final series of eight pamphlets was published in 1933 and consisted exclusively of work by poets, including Lincoln Kirstein, Horace Gregory, Raymond Ellsworth Larsson, Kathleen Tankersley Young, Paul Bowles, Laurence Vail, Carl Rakosi, and Bob Brown. Each was published in an edition of 100 copies.

Young traveled to Mexico in 1933 where she died unexpectedly and the Modern Press Editions came to an end. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired the first series of pamphlets, bound together in this colorful unsigned binding.

Dudley Fitts (1903-1968), Two Poems ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Stuart Davis (1892-1964).

John Kemmerer, Two Stories ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Isami Doi (1983-1965).

Kay Boyle (1902-1992), A Statement ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Max Weber (1881-1961).

Kathleen Tankersley Young (1903-1933), The Pepper Trees: a cycle of three stories ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Stefan Hirsch.

Raymond Ellsworth Larsson (1901- ), Wherefore: Peace ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Jane Berlandino.

Albert Halper (1904-1984), Chicago Side-Show ([New York]: Modern Editions Press, 1932). Frontispiece by Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).

A few more paintings take their place in Firestone Library

3rd floor 6 Striking a pose
Thank you to the art museum staff for their help
Mr. McCosh quietly waiting his turn
Switching the reproduction for the real thing
Triptych; Howard Russell Butler, Class of 1877 (1856-1934), Eclipse, 1918.
Wishing for a bigger elevator

For the History study room, we have the abstract painter and sculptor Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002), who is widely regarded as the founding father of Canadian contemporary art. The artist spent most of his career in France, where he befriended some of the last century’s most influential artists, including writer Samuel Beckett, surrealist André Breton and sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

A new place to study among the alumni

Hanging paintings in Firestone Library

We started the day like this…

…and ended the day like this. Posing with nine iconic Princeton portraits is the architect Frederick Fisher, principal of Frederick Fisher and Partners of Los Angeles, who was hired to create inspiring, aesthetically beautiful spaces within Firestone Library. He certainly succeeded today.

More such spaces will be appearing throughout the week.

Dolly Madison
Laurence Hutton with a playbill for a production of Antigone (Sophocles)

Chamber of Genius

Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The Chamber of Genius, April 2, 1812. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection

Beginning on Monday, 3 February 2014, one of the new classes being offered at Princeton University is ART 349 / HUM 349 / VIS 345 “The Artist at Work” taught by Prof. Irene V. Small. “What are the environments, fictions, fantasies, and ideologies that condition the artist at work?” asks the course description, “This course takes as its investigative locus the artist’s studio, a space of experimentation and inspiration, but also of boredom, sociability, exhaustion, and critique.”

This led to a quick look through the graphic arts collection to see how many artists’ studios are represented in our prints and drawings. Here are a few examples.

Raphael Soyer (1899-1987), In the Studio [copy 2], no date [1944]. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.02707.

William Heath (1795-1840), The Artist, 30 August 1812. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2013.00001.

Benoit-Louis Prevost (1747-ca. 1804) after design by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, II (1715-1790), Untitled [Art school], [1763]. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.00295.

Jean Duplessis-Bertaux (1750-1818), Suite des 6 pieces epreuves d’artists, [ca. 1810]. Etching and engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.00499

Michael McCurdy, Self Portrait, no date. Wood engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.01841

Gebbie & Husson Co. after a design by Paul Mathey (1844-1929), The First Trial [Felicien Rops in His Studio], 1893. Photogravure. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.04037.

Jacob de Geyn (1565-1610), Jacobus de Geyn, Antverp Pict. et sculpt. 1610. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection

Philip Galle (1537-1612) after designs by Jan van der Straet (1523-1605), Color Olivi [The invention of Oil Painting], plate 14 from Nova Reperta, 1500s. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection.

Harry Brodsky (1908-1997), Studio Interior, no date. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.00899.

1 Down, 32 More to Hang

With joint forces this week from the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University Campus Collections, the Graphic Arts Collection, and Atelier Art Services, we are hanging paintings, sculpture, and mosaics in the newly renovated Firestone Library. We began today with this section of mosaic pavement with a male head, Roman Syria, Antioch-on-the-Orontes, ca. 400 A.D. from the Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch to Princeton University (y1965-223)

It looks wonderful in the new Hellenic Studies Reading Room and we hope the students will be pleased when they return from their winter break. Thank you very much to the dozens of people who helped with this in the preparation stages and the execution today.

A Little Pre-Super Bowl Football

From 1912 to 1948, the Olympic Games included an international art competition, with medals in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. During the 1932 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 511 male and 76 female artists entered the exhibition.

Louis Hechenbleikner (1893-1983) was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and emigrated to the United States in 1923, becoming a naturalized citizen six years later. Although sports was not a common theme in Hechenbleikner’s work, he created five prints for the Olympic competition in 1932 including: The Tackle, Down the Field, Forward Pass, Through the Center, and Boxing Match. The Graphic Arts Collection has three of these five, presumably thanks to Hechenbleikner’s good friend Elmer Adler.

Louis Hechenbleikner, (1893-1963), Untitled [The Tackle, 1932]. Woodcut, GA 2007.01420; Untitled [Down the Field, 1932], woodcut. GA 2007.01419; and Untitled [Forward Pass, 1932], woodcut. GA 2007.01421

Here are a few other football scenes by some other artists.

Henry Martin (born 1925), Untitled [Spectators at Princeton football game], no date. Pen-and-wash drawing on paper. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Henry Martin, Class of 1948.

George Hunt (active 1820-1845) after a design by Robert Cruikshank (1789-1856), Foot ball, 1830. Engraving with hand coloring. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, Class of 1888. Graphic Arts Collection.

Thomas Nast (1840-1902), Time!: Yale vs. Princeton, 1889. Relief print. Graphic Arts, Thomas Nast Collection GA 2010.01149.

Otho Cushing (1871-1942), Untitled [Football player being toasted], no date [ca. 1910]. Pen drawing. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02593.

The American artist Otho Cushing taught painting at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before moving to Europe as the art editor for the European edition of the Herald-Tribune. Around 1906, Cushing joined the staff of Life magazine concentrating on caricatures with classical themes, using Greek gods and goddesses in many of his designs. The drawings in the Graphic Arts Collection are presumably for Life illustrations around this period. He left in 1917 to serve in the Army Air Corps.

A Trip along Tokaido Road

Okamoto Ippei, Maekawa Sempan, Hiratsuka Un’ichi, et al. Tōkaidō gojūsantsugi manga emaki . Jô Ge. [Tōkyō : Chūō Bijutsu Kyōkai, 1920s. In wooden box, title on box: Manga Tōkaidō, nikuhitsu 2 scrolls, each over 30 feet long and 10″ high. Graphic Arts collection GAX 2014- in process

This Tokaido scroll set was hand-painted in an edition of approximately 250-300 copies by 18 members of the Tokyo Manga Association. The images are based on a trip probably made in 1920-1921 and the paintings must have been finished soon after.

The artists involved include some famous names: Mizushima Nihou, Kondô Koichiro, Sempan and Un’ichi, among others. For Princeton University Library, it is significant that Okamoto Ippei (1886-1948) was involved because we know that Albert Einstein met him in 1922 and admired his work enough to purchase his book. The artist reciprocated by drawing a portrait of Einstein inside the volume (See: Ando Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stations on the Tokaido (1852). GAX Oversize 2009-0496Q).

For more information on the many prints, drawings, and books about the Tokaido Road, see the Princeton University Art Museum exhibition:

http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid=6&key=03-16-2011Art