For Immediate release
New to the Haggerty Museum of Art
(Milwaukee) The exhibition For Meyer Schapiro: A portfolio of 12 from the Estate of Michael J. Black, M.D., is currently on display at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University. This collection includes original lithographs, etchings, and silk-screens created by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Liberman, Stanley William Hayter, Roy Lichenstein, Andre Masson, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenburg, Frank Stella, and Saul Steinberg.
Highlights of the exhibition include a variation of Andy Warhol’s famous Cambell’s Soup Can printed all in black, Jasper John’s Target, and Lichtenstein’s Still Life With Lemon and Glass.
The collection is being shown in memory of Meyer Schapiro, a principal figure in the intellectual life of New York who made important scholarly contributions to the criticism of modern and contemporary art in America during the mid twentieth century. He was a professor emeritus at Columbia University and also a lecturer at New York University and at the New School for Social Research. Schapiro’s lectures were seen as important events in the lives of many up and coming, as well as firmly established artists in New York at the time. His published works, especially his writings on Picasso, Van Gogh, and Cezanne are considered treasured texts on the subjects of art and criticism from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The collection of prints on display at the Haggerty was compiled in 1974 on the occasion of Meyer Schapiro’s 70th Birthday. The works were sold in an edition of 100 to fund the endowment of a chair in Schapiro’s name in the departments of art history and archeology at Columbia University, New York. The portfolio has been made available to the Haggerty by the estate of Dr. Michael J. Black.
The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 am-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.. Free parking is available in the Mary B. Finnigan Parking Lot (enter on 11th St. through Marquette Lot J). For more information please contact Brian Moore at 1-(414)-288-7290.
SEE BELOW FOR ARTISTS BIOS
Stanley William Hayter (b. London, 1901-1988)
English-born printmaker and painter, Stanley William (S.W.) Hayter was most active in France and the United States. Hayter studied chemistry and geology at King’s College in London before moving to Paris in 1926. In Paris, Hayter enrolled at the Académie Julian, where he studied burin engraving. He began taking students the following year, and opened his own workshop, Atelier 17, in 1933. French surrealists Yves Tanguy and André Masson were among the artists who worked at his studio. Hayter frequently exhibited with the Surrealists during the 1930s. His own work, often violent in imagery, was in reaction to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). In an effort to raise money for the Spanish cause, he organized a series of print portfolios including Solidarité (1938, Paris). In 1939, Hayter moved to New York and taught printmaking at the New School for Social Research until 1945, when he reopened Atelier 17 in Greenwich Village. Hayter’s studio, which encouraged collaboration and experimentation, had a veritable influence on the printmaking renaissance of the 1950s. Hayter’s book, New Ways of Gravure (1949), became a key text for printmakers.
Jasper Johns (b. Augusta, GA, 1930)
Although Jasper Johns briefly attended the University of South Carolina, he is largely considered a self-taught artist. In the mid 1950s, Johns began to paint flags, targets, alphabets and other instantly recognizable images. His work was not formally exhibited until 1957, when Green Target was included in a group show at the Jewish Museum in New York. The following year, Johns had his first solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery. He was also represented at the Venice Biennale, and won the International Prize at the Pittsburgh Biennale. In 1959, Tatanya Grosman, founder of ULAE (Universal Limited Art Editions) saw Johns work at the Museum of Modern Art in the group exhibition Sixteen Americans. Thoroughly impressed, Grosman brought lithographic stones to Johns’ studio, and in 1960, Johns made Target, his first print. Printmaking processes and techniques were of conceptual interest to Johns, and the notion of image repetition and reversal became increasingly present in his work as a whole. Like Robert Rauschenberg, who is also represented in this portfolio, Johns is often viewed as a link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art
Ellsworth Kelly (b. Newburgh, New York, 1923)
Painter, sculptor and printmaker, Ellsworth Kelly attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1940s, and after serving in the army, studied at the Boston Museum of the Fine Arts School, and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. In France, Kelly became familiar with Surrealism and Neo-Plasticism, which led him to experiment with automatic drawing and geometric abstraction. In 1949, Kelly began painting in an exclusively abstract style, and found inspiration in the play of light and shadow. In 1954, Kelly moved back to the United States, and his first solo show in New York was held at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1956. Three years later, he was included in Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. By the late 1950s Kelly had an international reputation. His paintings emphasized the shape and planar masses of organic forms. While Kelly was never fully involved in any particular art movement, his unique approach influenced Minimal art, color field painting, Op-Art, and Post-painterly Abstraction. From 1964, Kelly produced prints and editioned sculpture at Gemini G.E.L, in Los Angeles and Tyler Graphics Ltd near New York City. His first published series was Suite of Twenty-seven Color Lithographs (1964-5).
Alexander Liberman (b. Kiev, Russia, 1912-1999)
Alexander Liberman’s family left the Soviet Union for London as exiles in 1921. Liberman studied there briefly before moving to Paris where he undertook philosophy and mathematics at the Sorbonne and architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts. In the 1930s Liberman designed stage sets, and worked on the staff of Vu, the first magazine illustrated with photographs. Although Liberman quickly earned the title of managing director, he left the magazine in 1936, and devoted himself to painting and writing. In 1941, he left Paris for New York. Again, he became involved in publishing after gaining employment at Vogue magazine. Twenty years later, in 1962, he became Editorial Director of all Condé Nast Publications, a position he held until he retired in 1994. During his time at Vogue, Liberman introduced 20th-century art to readers by using it as a backdrop for fashion shoots, as well as by profiling living artists in the magazine. As a painter, Liberman exhibited geometric circle paintings in galleries and museums around New York in the 1950s. Liberman also had an interest in sculpture, and began welding steel into public works in the late 1950s. These monochrome geometric sculptures are featured in over 40 cities worldwide.
Roy Lichtenstein (b. New York, 1923-1997)
Roy Lichtenstein first studied under Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League, New York, in 1939, and continued from 1940 to 1943 at Ohio State University in Columbus. After military service in World War II, Lichtenstein returned to Columbus in 1946, completing his Master of Fine Arts in 1949. Lichtenstein’s involvement in printmaking began in graduate school when he made a series of woodcuts depicting whimsical medieval subjects. However, the works for which he is most well known are his large-scale “pop” paintings. From the early 1960s, Lichtenstein appropriated both the style and the subject matter of comic strips. In these paintings, he mimicked commercial printing by painting patterns of colored circles. These circles imitated the Ben Day dots of newspaper printing. In 1962, Lichtenstein had his first solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. During the same year, Lichtenstein created his first commissioned etching, On (1962), for America Discovered, a portfolio of prints by twenty American artists. Lichtenstein soon turned to other printmaking processes such as silk screening and lithography. These processes generated the more mechanical look that was typical of Pop Art.
André Masson (b. Balagne, France, 1896-1987)
André Masson’s association with artists André Breton, Joan Miró, and Max Ernst, has often led him to being grouped him with the French Surrealist movement. Although Masson’s early work explored surrealistic themes, he was not limited to this particular movement. In 1924, Masson had his first solo exhibition at Daniel Henry Kahnweiler’s Galerie Simon in Paris. Two years later, his work was exhibited at Galerie Surrealiste, and in 1936, he exhibited fourteen works at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London. In 1941, Masson left France for the United States, where he began to explore mythological themes in his paintings. Although he is most well known for his paintings, Masson’s close friendships with writers led him to work in print media as well. In 1924, Masson collaborated with poet George Limbaud on Soleils Bas, a book of poems and etchings. Shortly after, Masson published a second book called Simulacre. This was co-created by the poet Michel Leiris, and included seven lithographs by Masson.
Robert Motherwell (b. Aberdeen, WA, 1915-1991)
Before becoming a force in the New York art scene in the 1940s, Robert Motherwell studied art history with Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University, New York in 1939. In 1944, he had his first solo exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery. During the late 1940s and 50s, Motherwell taught at Black Mountain College and then at Hunter College, New York. During this time, he edited the Documents of Modern Art series, Possibilities magazine, and The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology. He also co-authored Modern Artists in America with Ad Reinhardt in 1951. In addition to his endeavors as a painter, editor, and writer, Motherwell also had a passion for printmaking. After years of printing at famed presses such as Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), and the Tamarind Institute, he installed his own etching press into his studio in 1973. Motherwell enjoyed the collaborative nature of printmaking, seeing it as way to break creative blocks.
Claes Oldenburg (b. Stockholm, 1929)
Raised in Chicago, sculptor, printmaker and performance artist Claes Oldenburg resolved to pursue a career in art during his four years (1946–50) at Yale University. In 1956, he moved to New York, and in 1959, he had his first solo exhibition at the Judson Gallery. The following year, his second show, The Street, was shared with artist Jim Dine, and was also held at the Judson Gallery. A found-object environment, the exhibition consisted of urban debris, and was the setting for his first performance, Snapshots from the City. Oldenburg’s interest in materialist culture as subject matter placed him within the Pop Art movement. In his “soft sculpture”, and public monuments, Oldenburg often distorts familiar objects such as hamburgers and toilets through gross enlargement. His unexpected choice of scale and materials create an art of parody and humor. Oldenburg’s commitment to making art accessible to everyone led him to experiment with the naturally democratic medium of printmaking in the early 1960s. In 1961, Oldenburg’s first editioned print, Orpheum, was included in America Discovered, a Pop Art print portfolio produced by dealer Arturo Schwartz.
Robert Rauschenberg (b. Port Arthur, TX, 1925)
Robert Rauschenberg briefly studied pharmacy at the University of Texas in the early 40s, and then joined the U.S. Marines. It was during his service that he began to develop an interest in drawing. In 1945, after being discharged from the Navy, Rauschenberg took advantage of the G.I. Bill and studied art at a number of institutions including the Kansas City Art Institute, the Academie Julian in Paris, the Art Students League in New York and Black Mountain College in North Carolina. While a student at Black Mountain College, Rauschenberg studied under Josef Albers, and had his first solo exhibition at the Betty Parson’s Gallery in New York. Rauschenberg is most well known for his “combine paintings”, which incorporate found objects, and blur the lines between painting and sculpture. In 1962, Rauschenberg began to screen print directly onto his canvases. This process allowed him to quickly transfer images of cultural icons into his paintings. The mixing of pop culture references into his highly gestural style, has earned his work recognition as a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
Saul Steinberg (b. Râmnicul-Sărat, Romania, 1914-1999)
Painter, sculptor, and cartoonist Saul Steinberg was born in Romania in 1914. After a year at the University of Bucharest in 1932, he traveled to Milan and entered the Politecnico where he studied architecture for six years. During this period, his first cartoons were published in Bertoldo, a bi-weekly magazine printed in Milan. Following graduation in 1940, his drawings were reproduced in the American magazines Life and Harper’s Bazaar. In 1941, Steinberg moved to the United States, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and had his first exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. Three years later, he was included in Fourteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Steinberg’s whimsical drawings push the limits of the cartoon genre, and investigate the relationship of fine art and popular print. His interest in printmaking is consistent with his desire to reach a diverse art audience. All in Line (1945), and The Passport (1954) are among 11 books of his published drawings.
Frank Stella (b. Malden, MA, 1936)
American painter and printmaker, Frank Stella graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover in 1954 and Princeton University in 1958. In the 1960s, Stella began painting concentric squares, stripes, and large geometric motifs. Concurrent with these stripe paintings was Stella’s introduction to printmaking. His first prints, pulled at Gemini Graphic Editions Limited in Los Angeles, mirrored the streamlined style of his stripe paintings. Stella experimented with a variety of printmaking processes including lithography and screen-printing, but is most noted for his adaptation of offset lithography, a traditionally commercial process, into fine-art printmaking. Stella’s long and distinguished exhibition history features inclusion in Documenta 4, 1968, and Documenta 6, 1977. The Charles Eliot Norton lectures (1983-84), which he gave at Harvard on Caravaggio, were published as the influential book Working Space, 1986. A major exhibition of Stella’s work was held at the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid and the Haus de Kunst, Munich in 1995. Stella lives and works in New York.
Andy Warhol (b. Pittsburgh, PA, 1928-1987)
American painter, printmaker, sculptor and filmmaker, Andy Warhol moved to New York after studying at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in his hometown, Pittsburgh, from 1945-49. He began working as a commercial artist and illustrator for magazines and newspapers. Driven by an intense desire to become famous, Warhol painted a series of pictures based on crude advertisements and comic strips. This style, later known as Pop Art, found inspiration in the materials and images of popular culture. Warhol used the techniques of commercial printmaking, such as silk screening, stamping, and stenciling to further push the manufactured appearance of his art. In 1962, Warhol participated in America Discovered, a print portfolio organized by gallery owner Arturo Schwartz featuring an emerging group of New York artists who were interested in exploring consumer culture through art. Warhol gravitated to printmaking because it challenged the concept of the unique artwork.