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November
26, 2002: International
Print Center New York announces the presentation of Creative
Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop
from Wednesday, November 27th through Saturday, January 25th,
2003, in its Chelsea gallery at 526 West 26th Street. Creative
Space is a Library of Congress exhibition realized in collaboration
with International Print Center New York and the Elizabeth Foundation
for the Arts. Following its presentation at IPCNY, the exhibition
will be displayed at the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C. beginning in February, 2003.
The
exhibition has been guest curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator,
El Museo Del Barrio, New York City.
Creative
Space features a key selection of prints by artist and master
printmaker Robert Blackburn and a dazzling array of artists'
prints drawn from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Archives and Collection, now on deposit at The Library of Congress.
Artists represented include Will Barnet, Romare Bearden, Kathy
Caraccio, Roy DeCarava, Ernest Crichlow, Mel Edwards, Antonio
Frasconi, Mohammed Khalil, Roberto DeLamonica, Jacob Lawrence,
Faith Ringgold and Charles White among many others.
The
work spans the twentieth century, from the 1930's when Blackburn
first learned lithography at a WPA sponsored community center
in Harlem, into the '40's and his founding of the Printmaking
Workshop in 1948, through the next five decades of more than
a thousand artists exploring the graphic medium at what became
the largest non-profit workshop in the United States and one
of the most vital collaborative art studios in the world. The
Printmaking Workshop has been a catalyst within the international
printmaking community, "seeding" other institutions,
schools, and workshops as far away as Morocco and South Africa.
Master
printmaker Robert Blackburn (1920-2003) changed the course of
American art through his graphic work and the Printmaking Workshop.
His pioneering contributions to the technical and aesthetic
develoment of abstract color lithography is as legendary as
his generosity in encouraging and training thousands of diverse
artists to experiment in the graphic medium.
The
Library of Congress is working with the non-profit Elizabeth
Foundation for the Arts to acquire and preserve more than 2,000
fine prints by 1,311 artist-members of the Printmaking Workshop.
The
presentation of Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's
Printmaking Workshop at IPCNY is made possible by generous
grants from the AEVentures Foundation and the Ludwig Vogelstein
Foundation.
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