Rise of the master printmakers

CORRECTION RAN FEB. 8, 2011, A2

An image with "Rise of the master printers," Sunday on E1 was "Portrait of Lasansky #2," an engraving by Jack Orman. The caption information was for another print, which was not published.

Historic exhibit at The Drawing Studio showcases their work

Andrew Rush helped fuel a revolution. In the years after WorldWar II, Rush, an artist and founder of Tucson's The Drawing Studio,discovered - along with other artists of his generation - the worldof printing.

Burning with excitement about the possibilities prints meant totheir drawings and paintings and the creative process, Rush and hisfellow artists learned how to engrave images on metal plates or woodand transfer them to print. They also learned how to mix inks andpress the images onto paper - either by hand or with a printingpress. And they became master printers - highly skilled in all areasof printing.

The result was a new way to make art and a high-energy movementof artists making their own prints. Many of the key artists/printers from that era have works in The Drawing Studio's currentshow, "The Rise of the Print: Midcentury Masters of AmericanPrintmaking."

"This was a major movement and made a difference in printmaking,"says Rush of that post-World War II revolution.

"It created artists who had enormous influence on artists and arteducators. That happened in just 50 years."

It was a time that created such thrilling work that dealer DanielLienau concentrates on fine-art prints from that era through hisSanta Rosa, Calif., Annex Galleries.

"To me, that was the most exciting time in 20th-centuryprintmaking," Lienau said in a phone interview.

"It was an electric time, and I feel that with the work. There'ssoul in the work."

On this winter day, Rush, now 79, is sitting in the library ofThe Drawing Studio, not looking a lot like a revolutionary artist.He is dressed in blue jeans and a light jacket. What's left of histhinning gray hair sort of floats around his head, and his eyesfocus sharply on you when he talks. Beside him is a blackboardcontaining the sentence, "Live outside the lines," written in red.

"As far as I know, this is the first show to bring together inone gathering this group of mostly artists/teachers," he says as hesuggests a stroll through the gallery.

"I have a very respectable cross-section of the major artists inthis genre."

The exhibit is a study in the variety of printing methods andstyles. The walls of the small gallery are packed with figurativeworks, abstracts, landscapes and Surrealist images realized inlithographs, engravings and etchings - different methods used toproduce the final design that is transferred to print.

There's Richie Lasansky's black-and-white engraving of a monkey'sface that draws you in not only because of its knowing look, butbecause of the incredible detail of the work.

And Surrealist Maximino Javier's "Tio Vivo," a color lithographof a circusy character on top of an oversized and out-of-proportionhobby horse with trains running through it and a cat underneath.

And Jack Orman's copperplate engraving "Portrait of Lasansky," amixture of figurative and abstract black-and-white images that is anhomage to his teacher, Mauricio Lasansky.

Everywhere you look, the walls are covered with prints that drawyou in, amaze, confound and fascinate.

Most of those with works in the exhibit are teachers as well asartists, as is Rush, who in the 1960s taught the first print classesat the University of Arizona's art school.

The idea for the show grew out of a casual conversation Rush hadwith fellow artist Orman.

They were discussing the resurgence of print post-World War II,and it occurred to both men that there hadn't been a major exhibit.

Rush saw a double opportunity: a show by major printers/artistsand a fundraiser for the nonprofit Drawing Studio, devoted to"cultivating the skills of visual intelligence," as its missionstatement says. The Drawing Studio sponsors lectures, demonstrationsand art classes for everyone, regardless of artistic ability.

"I got on the Internet, e-mail and phone and contacted artists,"Rush recalls.

"I told them what I was doing, and would they be interested ingiving a print to The Drawing Studio? Half of them I knew throughschool and by reputation, or we had all exhibited at the sameshows."

Much to Rush's surprise, 95 percent of the artists responded anddonated a print to The Drawing Studio, which will use all proceedsto bolster the studio's classes, teachers and scholarship programs.

"The mission of The Drawing Studio played a huge part in theirdonating the art," said Rush.

"It was a perfect match for them."

Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Experimentation hallmark of post-WW II printmaking

The latter half of the 20th century gave rise to an abundance ofexperiments in print - which is part of what adds to the printmovement's import, says Lee Karpiscak. As curator and assistantdirector of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, she wasresponsible for the purchase of many of the prints in the museum'sholdings.

"Experimentation keeps art alive," says Karpiscak, who retired in1990 after 13 years at the UA. "Rather than staying in the same modeforever, we see all the growth that takes place because ofexperimentation."

Daniel Lienau, owner of the Annex Galleries in Santa Rosa,Calif., which specializes in prints, says the experimentation andnew discoveries were what drove the master printmakers of the era.

"The concern wasn't making 50 identical prints that were perfectand could sell for the biggest price," he says. "The whole idea wasto experiment with printmaking and follow your love of that medium."

At the time, printmaking wasn't spoken of with much reverencefrom art critics and collectors, he says.

No matter.

"In the art world, print was probably at the bottom rung of theladder," he says. "They weren't selling then. Paper was expensive,material was expensive. So they would do small editions, 10, 20, andmove on. . . . It was all about stretching and using new materialsand trying new things."

How they did it

The prints in The Drawing Studio's current exhibit are createdthrough one of the following methods:

* Intaglio - The design is printed from the recessed areas of ametal plate. Engraving, aquatint, mezzotint and etching are amongthe intaglio methods.

* Relief printing - What is cut away from the surface of theplate does not print; what is left on the surface prints. Woodengraving, woodcut and linoleum block use this process.

* Planographic - Printing on a flat surface. A design is drawnwith a greasy substance onto a porous stone, such as limestone. Theartist then wets the stone with water and pours on an oily ink,which holds onto the greasy design and bypasses the wet parts of thestone. Lithography uses this method.

What is an original print?

The original prints in The Drawing Studio show are different fromthe posters or prints that are produced in mass quantity, drivingthe price and exclusivity down.

Original prints like those in "The Rise of the Print" are createdand printed by hand by the artist or an assistant.

Plate, block, stone or stencil are used to create the image,which is then transferred by hand or press to paper.

The finished product looks vastly different from the plates theartist uses originally - as a result, the finished product is not acopy or reproduction.

Because the printing process reverses the image, the artist hasto think backwards.

"It's slow work," says Andrew Rush, adding that if a mistake ismade, you incorporate it, go in a different direction, or start allover.

Each print is more than just an image, says Rush.

"Because it takes anywhere from a month to a year to make oneprint, you're living with an image. It forms a language and itengenders a kind of philosophic artist conversation. It teachesabout composition and what an image is. That's why I still teachit."

Though printed in multiples, each print is, technically, a uniquework. Artists sign and number each.

Meet Some of the artists

A sampling of the close to 30 artists with works in The DrawingStudio exhibit.

* Mauricio Lasansky - Lasansky was a key figure in the emergenceof fine-art print. He established the printmaking program at theUniversity of Iowa, where many of the master printers in this showstudied, and then went on to teach elsewhere. Lasansky's self-portrait in the show is one that The Drawing Studio's Andrew Rushassisted him in making.

* Richie Lasansky - At 40, Richie is the youngest printmaker inthe show. He studied biology in college, and when he graduated heimmediately apprenticed himself to his grandfather, MauricioLasansky, and became a fine-art printer. He makes all his own inksand does his own printing. Rush included him in the show to indicatewhere the future of printmaking is headed.

* Lee Chesney - The artist studied with Mauricio Lasansky at theUniversity of Iowa. His prints are in galleries and museums aroundthe world. He is professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

* Evan Lindquist - Lindquist taught at the University of Arkansasand Arizona State University. The oft-awarded artist works primarilyin engravings. His works are in collections around the world.

* Eric Avery - Avery went to medical school in Texas after hegraduated with a B.A. in art from the University of Arizona. He wasthe medical director in a refugee camp in Somalia and is currentlyclinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciencesat the University of Texas-Galveston. He works primarily in woodcutsand often addresses medical issues in his art. Among the museumsthat have Avery in their permanent collection are the Boston Museumof Fine Arts, the Whitney Museum and the Philadelphia Museum.

* Peter Milton - Milton's etching and engravings are detailedSurrealistic images that demand you return again and again to studythem. He works only in black and white - a decision he made afterhe discovered he had a red-green color blindness. He is a graduateof Yale University, a teacher, author and internationally acclaimedartist.

* Sidney Chafetz - Chafetz is considered the greatest livingwoodcut artist today. He started the printmaking program at OhioState University in 1959. Among the museums with Chafetz holdingsare the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Smithsonian.

* Andrew Rush - Rush is a co-founder of Rancho Linda Vista, theartists' colony in Oracle. He taught printing at the University ofArizona and founded The Drawing Studio. In Tucson, he is well knownfor his public-art works, including the rammed-earth monoliths hecreated with a group of artists at the northwest corner of WestCongress Street and Interstate 10, in Sentinel Plaza. Rush hasn'tdone fine-art printing in about 20 years, but he still is knownaround the country for his works.

Buy art, support The Drawing Studio

These are not the prints you buy at the bookstore and slap onyour dorm room wall. Fine-art prints are in a whole differentcategory.

The works in The Drawing Studio exhibit can be purchased for $400to about $3,000 each.

If you go

"The Rise of the Print: Midcentury Masters of AmericanPrintmaking"

* Where: The Drawing Studio, 33 S. Sixth Ave.

* When: Through Feb. 26. Gallery hours are noon-4 p.m. Tuesdaysthrough Saturdays.

* Cost: Free.

* Information: 620-0947 and www.thedrawingstudio.org

* Et cetera: Andrew Rush will give a printmaking demonstrationfrom 4 to 6 p.m. next Sunday. It's $20 for The Drawing Studiomembers; $25 for nonmembers.