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International
Print Center New York announces the presentation of California
Abstract Expressionists: Prints from the Charles R. Dean Collection
from Wednesday, September 10th through Saturday, October 25th,
2003, in its Chelsea gallery at 526 West 26th St., Room 824.
The
exhibition has been guest curated by Faye Hirsch, an independent
curator, writer and former editor, Art on Paper magazine.
California
Abstract Expressionists features some thirty prints in various
mediums created by artists working during the post-war period,
primarily in the Bay Area. Especially radical were Bay Area
innovations in lithography, a number of rare examples of which
are on view here. Artists represented in the exhibition are
Dennis Beall, Roy De Forest, James Budd Dixon, Edward Dugmore,
Leonard Edmondson, Ernest Freed, Sonia Gechtoff, Leon Goldin,
James Kelly, Walter Kuhlman, Frank Lobdell, Robert McChesney,
Byron McClintock, George Miyasaki, George Stillman, Sam Tchakalian
and Joseph Zirker. A portfolio of offset lithographs, Drawings,
of 1948, contains examples by Richard Diebenkorn and John Hultberg
in addition to Dixon, Kuhlman, Lobdell and Stillman. It was
the first Abstract Expressionist print portfolio produced anywhere
in the United States.
The
exhibition reveals the influence of the innovative English artist
Stanley William Hayter, founder of Atelier 17 in Paris, who
taught intaglio at the California School of Fine Arts in San
Francisco in 1940 and in 1948 and who had moved his workshop
to New York during the War. An example of Hayter's work is included
in the exhibition along with comparative prints from three artists
working at Atelier 17 in New York: Sue Fuller, Peter Grippe
and Louise Nevelson.
In
writing about the collection, Ms. Hirsch states that Mr. Dean,
who began collecting Abstract Expressionist prints in 1987,
"has amassed one of the most impressive caches of this
material in private hands." The California prints comprise
approximately one third of his collection-- which was recently
exhibited in its entirety at The Cummer Museum of Art in Jacksonville,
Florida.
Ms. Hirsch describes the California artists as "radical,
sometimes factionalized." In the essay which accompanies
the exhibition, she writes: "As with Abstract Expressionism
in general, the California prints in Dean's collection are wide-ranging,
though a few generalizing remarks may be made….Most of
these artists were after the holy grail of postwar abstraction,
the truly 'non-objective' image. Whether attained through aggressive
gesture or dispersed atmospherics, abstraction was, for them,
the true expression of the individual spirit of the modern artist."
International
Print Center New York is a non-profit institution dedicated
to the appreciation and understanding of the fine art print.
IPCNY nurtures the growth of new audiences for the visual arts
while serving the print community through exhibitions, publications
and educational programs. California Abstract Expressionists
is the fifth in a series of exhibitions in IPCNY's Chelsea space
interspersing juried presentations of contemporary work. For
additional information about IPCNY and its programs, visit our
website at www.ipcny.org. IPCNY is a 501(c)(3) organization
which depends upon public and private donations to support its
programs.
The
presentation of California Abstract Expressionists is
made possible with the generous funding from Mrs. Frances Leventritt.
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