Print by Print: Series From Dürer to Lichtenstein Showcases 500 Years of Serial Printmaking
More than 350 rarely shown works drawn from the BMA’s world-class print collection
Print by Print: Series from Dürer to Lichtenstein is an epic exhibition of more than 350 prints by American and European artists working in series from the late 15th through the 21st centuries, including Canaletto, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, and Ed Ruscha. On view October 30, 2011 through March 25, 2012, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity to view 29 series of multiple images in complete sets—revealing the true vision of the artist, print by print. Also represented are two voices for a new generation of printmakers, Daniel Heyman and Andrew Raftery, who will speak at the BMA on Saturday, December 3.
From Albrecht Dürer’s 16 woodcut illustrations for The Apocalypse (c. 1496-1498) to Roy Lichtenstein’s seven Monet-inspired color lithographs and screenprints Haystacks (1969), Print by Print demonstrates how serial printmaking has been a vital practice for artists to explore styles, subjects, and techniques for more than 500 years. The exhibition draws from the BMA’s renowned print collection to explore six broad themes—narrative, design, places, imagination, appropriation, and war. These series show a wide range of printmaking techniques, from etchings and engravings to lithographs and screenprints, and vary considerably in number and scale from Picasso’s two compelling images for The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937) to Sonia Delaunay’s 40 brilliant color stencils in Compositions, Colors, Ideas (1930).
All of the series, portfolios, and sets of prints in the exhibition are from the BMA’s collection of more than 65,000 works on paper, including drawings and photographs, from the 15th century to the present. Considered one of the most significant collections of works on paper in the country, it is also a comprehensive resource for the study of Western printmaking. More than half of the works in the exhibition have never previously been on view at the Museum.
Print by Print is the culmination of a collaboration between the BMA and the Museums and Society program at The Johns Hopkins University. The works and themes were selected by students participating in JHU’s Spring 2010 course: “Paper Museums: Exhibiting Prints at The Baltimore Museum of Art.” Rena Hoisington, Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs, worked with students to select and write labels for the series on view. In addition to selecting the objects, two students worked with the BMA over the summer to develop educational materials for the exhibition.
This exhibition is part of a project supported by The Johns Hopkins University through a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This exhibition is sponsored by The Rouse Company Foundation.
ARTIST TALK: Contemporary printmakers Daniel Heyman and Andrew Raftery, two voices from a new generation of printmakers, are included in the exhibition and will be at the BMA Saturday, December 3 at 2 p.m. to discuss their work with master printer Brian Garner and BMA visitors. In eight powerful portraits of Abu Ghraib prisoners created during in-person interviews between the detainees and their lawyers, Philadelphia-based artist Daniel Heyman incised large copper plates with the likeness and words of each man. As if the prisoner’s accounts have physically manifested themselves, the stories of torture and humiliation literally surround each figure. Andrew Raftery questions what one might consider a normal, benign occurrence—the sale of a home. Raftery’s Open House series reveals unsettling narratives, as illustrated in Scene Five (master bedroom) where prospective buyers unabashedly poke around in the seller’s bedroom. Visitors are invited to participate in the conversation by posting questions for the artists by December 3 to the BMA’s Facebook page (facebook.com/artbma). Admission to the program is free.
