a century of photogravure @ aib
September 6 – October 23 2011
Reception: September 15, 5pm to 7pm
Works by Edward Steichen, Frederick Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Aaaron Siskind, Lee Friedlander, Parke-Harrison, Kiki Smith, Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, David Levinthal, Lothar Osterburg, Melagros de la Torre, Paul Taylor, and many others.
Adolf De Meyer, The Fountain of Saturn, 1912
This exhibition brings together 20 artists and over 60 of the finest works ever produced by the photogravure process. An invention that coincided with the birth of photography, photogravure transforms the silver image into an intaglio print. Initially used as a means of reproducing photographic imagery in journals and books, gravure—especially hand pulled gravure–became prized for its own luminous syntax and has attracted major photographic artists and printmakers.
Alfred Stieglitz’s publication Camera Work (1903-1917) established the highest standards for photographic reproduction in gravure and when printed directly from the original negative. He considered the gravure image an original print. Selections from Camera Work include images by Evans, Coburn, Steichen, Stieglitz, Seeley, Keiley, White and De Meyer.
A few early artists like Evans and Coburn became skilled plate makers while others like Steichen and Strand collaborated with photogravure craftsmen associated with large printing houses. With the end of mechanical photogravure, today there are only a few studios that still produce gravure. Jon Goodman in Northampton, Lothar Osterburg in Brooklyn, Paul Taylor in New Hampshire, and Jim Stroud outside Boston are among the few. Among the contemporary artists who have collaborated with them are Kiki Smith, Lee Friedlander, John Dugdale, Parke-Harrison, Thorne Thomsen, Levinthal, among others.
This exhibition celebrates their work and the continuation of this beautiful and expressive medium.
Lothar Osterburg, Piranesi State 1, 2008
As demanding as any of the intaglio processes, gravure allows for manipulation of the print from image to image by adjustments to inking, wiping the plate, and additional work post-production. Lothar Osterburg, one of a handful of contemporary artists working in gravure, approaches each print as the basis for additional drawing and painting.
Exhibition has been curated by exhibition director Bonnell Robinson and majority of works drawn from Boston area collections.
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