Husk-E-News, May 2008

Stoned or Impregnated: New York Lithography, ca. 1960, on exhibition June 3-August 10 at the William Benton Museum of Art, presents works by artists affiliated with a lithographic workshop called Collectors’ Graphics.

While lithography after World War II was generally considered a commercial medium, three lithographic workshops sprung up between 1958 and 1960 and sought to re-create lithography as an artistic medium. ULAE opened on Long Island in 1958, Collectors’ Graphics in New York City in late 1959, and Tamarind in Los Angeles in 1960. Of the three, Collectors’ Graphics had the briefest run, only until early 1963, but had an interesting technical history, and its roster included a variety of well-known and lesser-known artists.

In 2004, Jules Sherman, through his son Scott, donated to the William Benton Museum a selection of lithographs created by Collectors’ Graphics artists including John Heliker, Robert Goodnough, Alex Katz, Fairfield Porter, Marisol, David Levine, Michael Mazur, Jane Freilicher, Antonio Frasconi, and Paul Resika. A number of other artists, well-known in the 50s if not so well known today, were Reginald Pollack, Jane Wilson, Burt Hasen, Paul Georges, Constantino Nivola, Carmen Cicero, Rosemary Beck, Leon Hartl, Tobias Schneebaum, Bernard Pfriem, Lan Bar, Jim Brustlein, Annie Cardin, Mark McAfee, Janice Biala, Alvin Ross, Joel Goldblatt, Fannie Hillsmith, Miller Farr, Harvey Dinnerstein, and Burt Silverman.

The William Benton Museum is proud to present this exhibition of works drawn from Jules Sherman's gift. The artists are interesting; their works are of high quality; and Collectors’ Graphics played a role in the rediscovery of lithography in America as an artistic medium for the creation of original works of art.

It all started in 1959 when the painter Reginald Pollack (1924–2001), who had learned traditional lithography on stone in Paris after the war, met Jules Sherman, the owner of a commercial lithographic firm in Manhattan. When Pollack expressed interest in continuing to work in lithography, Sherman was a sympathetic partner with a shared vision to provide the means for artists to work in the medium, create original prints with no photomechanical aides, publish them in limited editions at low cost to the collector, and to do so without the artist having to use heavy and cumbersome lithographic stones. Sherman made his commercial workshop available on weekends, providing the tools and means for artists to create their lithographic prints. Their greatest challenge was finding a suitable substitute for the lithographic stone. After many failures, the solution came to Sherman in the night—use a flexible, plastic coated paper that was commercially available although usable only for short runs. Initially the available sheets were not large enough; however, once he had larger sheets, Sherman could give the artists a matrix on which they could draw using any suitable crayon or ink, and from which he could print the image. A multi-colored work was more difficult because each color of the finished print required its own plate. An eight-color work required eight separate plates. The lithographs were printed very slowly on an offset press and, despite a planned edition of 75-100 impressions, the plates frequently failed and the run ended with 50-60 prints.

Through Reginald Pollack's brother Louis (1921-1970), owner of Peridot Gallery in New York City, Collectors’ Graphics established a valuable connection that gave a number of the artists a Madison Avenue gallery in which to exhibit their prints. The first group show in May 1961 was reviewed by Stuart Preston of The New York Times:
"New graphic processes constantly appear on the scene. The latest technique, a method of working directly on specially treated plastic base plates, has been developed by the painter Reginald Pollack and is exemplified in prints by him and other well-known contemporary artists in an exhibition at the Peridot Gallery, 820 Madison Avenue.
It seems to be a short cut that by-passes the detailed and laboriously acquired knowledge of traditional lithography. The proof of this lies in the fact that artists, many of whom have never tried their hand at print-making, show here work that can be admired for its authentic graphic quality and for the faithfulness with which it embodies their style and subject matter. This translation into a new medium is invisible."

Collectors’ Graphics was founded not only with artistic goals in mind but with the desire to make limited editions, artistically meaningful and original works of art available at modest prices, around $25 to $30 a print. An interesting sidelight to the latter objective was the occasional connection between Collectors’ Graphics and the marketing venture undertaken by Sears, Roebuck and Company and the actor and art collector Vincent Price. Beginning in October 1962 and continuing until 1971, Sears sold through its mail-order catalogue and stores works of art under the rubric of “The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art.” Trading on Price’s fame as an actor in movies, including the 1952 horror film The House of Wax, and his penchant for collecting art, Sears offered works of art, framed and guaranteed as original, that Price chose for the company to sell. According to Sherman, on more than one occasion Price bought entire editions of artists’ prints from Collectors’ Graphics to sell through Sears. Which editions or artists were chosen is unclear, but it proved an interesting collaboration between the nation’s then-largest retailer and a small lithographic atelier whose ambition was to make art accessible to anyone who desired it.

Stoned or Impregnated: New York Lithography, ca. 1960 will be on exhibition June 3-August 10.

Special Event
Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 12:15 pm
"Learning to Look at Art," a gallery talk by Benton Education Coordinator Tracy Lawlor

The Museum will be closed June 1 and 2.

The William Benton Museum, the state's official art museum, is located on the University of Connecticut campus, 245 Glenbrook Road, Unit 2140, Storrs, CT 06269-2140. Gallery hours: Tuesday–Friday 10 am–4:30 pm, Saturday & Sunday 1–4:30 pm. The Store at the Museum and the Café Muse close at 4 pm each day. For more information, please visit www.Benton.UConn.edu or call 860.486.4520.