A Journal of the Fine Print Volume Eleven 1988 E L E V E N 1 9 8 8 the TAMARIND PAPERS
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THE TAMARIND PAPERS A Journal of the Fine Print Volume Eleven 1988 E L E V E N 1 9 8 8 THE TAMARIND PAPERS EDITOR: Clinton Adams ASSIST ANT EDITOR: Kate Downer CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Pat Gilmour John Sommers Contributing Editor, 1974-1987 EDITORIAL BOARD: Philip Dennis Cate Van Deren Coke Richard Field Robert Gardner Jules Heller Sinclair H. Hitchings Eugenia Parry Janis Lynton R. Kistler Peter Morse Joann Moser Gustave von Groschwitz Barry Walker Gabriel P. Weisberg Theodore F. Wolff COVER: Willem deKooning. Born 1904. Landscape at Stanton Street. Lithograph, 1971. 76 x 56 em (30 x 22 in). Graham 26 (see page 24). SINGLE COPY PRICE, United States The Tamarind Papers, an annual journal of the fine print, is published by and Canada: $10.00 U.S.; Tamarind Institute, 108 Cornell Avenue, S.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico elsewhere $12.00. SUBSCRIPTIONS, 87106. Telephone 505:277-3901. Tamarind Institute is a division of the Uni United States and Canada: Two versity of New Mexico. issues, $18.00 U.S.; elsewhere, The editor welcomes submission of historical, critical, or technical articles on $23.00 (surface rna~). Back copies topics related to the fine print. Historical and critical articles should be limited are available; see page 78. to nineteenth- and twentieth-century subjects; technical articles may deal with any print medium. Manuscripts and photographs will be returned only © Tamarind Institute, 1988 if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. In preparation of All rights reserved . manuscripts, authors should adhere closely to the Chicago Manual of Style. Printed in the United States of Tamarind Institute is not responsible for loss of or injury to unsolicited manu America by the University of New scripts or photographs. The views expressed in articles and reviews are those of individual writers and not necessarily those of Tamarind Institute or the Mexico Printing Plant. University of New Mexico. ISSN: 0276-3397 Except as noted in captions, all works illustrated are printed in black; di mensions are given in centimeters, height preceding width. ISBN: 0-9619735-1-X THE TAMARIND PAPERS A Journal of the Fzne Print Volume Eleven 1988 \ CONTENTS Letters to TTP 4 John Sommers Joseph Traugott 6 The Prints of Willem deKooning: An Illustrated Catalogue of His Editions, 1960-1971 Lanier Graham 10 Artistic Printing: Collaborative Printing during the Etching Revival and Early Twentieth Century Larry D. Perkins 26 Dominique Vivant Denon and the Beginnings of Lithography in France Petra ten-Doesschate Chu 37 The Potential of Australian Aboriginal Printmaking Pat Gilmour 42 The Tamarind Exchange: Two American Artists in the Soviet Union An Interview with George McNeil and Lynne Allen Byron Lindsey 55 Changing Times, Changing Technologies Clinton Adams 68 Aluminum Plate Lithography Lynne Allen 69 Books & Catalogues in Review The Prints of Don Freeman: A Catalogue Raisonne. By Edith McCulloch Peter Morse 75 The Lithographs of Robert Riggs, with a Catalogue Raisonne. By Ben Bassham Joseph 5. Czestochowski 76 American Women of the Etching Revival. By Phyllis Peet Clinton Adams 77 Contributors. Notes from Tamarind. Photo Credits 78 Directory of Suppliers 80 comparison. It is only through compar In support of her argument Weisberg ison, both during the proofing process gave two contentious illustrations. One and during the printing of an edition, (pardon the chuckle) was of Whistler's that a good understanding can develop "working alone." Well, despite huffing of the differences between one print and and puffing about the artist needing to LETTERS TO TTP another. The proofing process shows ink and print. his own etchings, it was what works better, aesthetically and too much like hard work for Whistler to conceptually. The printing process shows follow his own precept. To deal only with through comparison how to come closer later prints, he enlisted the help of Mor to the making of a more perfect print. timer Men pes;' he called on the (unpaid) Further Comment: And then there is the dialogue, com services of the printer Champagne, who, "The Syntax of the Print" munication, and collaboration between although employed as a lithographer by the artist and the printer that may last Way, assisted with the Venice etchings;' RUTH WEISBERG'S REPLY to my letter [ITP for weeks or months on a single print. and he even collaborated with Joseph 10 (Fall 1987): 52-53] clarifies the differ I am sure that you can understand the Pennell.' Weisberg's other illustration ences in the way we view printmaking. intensity of that entire experience and I do not see collaboration as a mechan ~, the feeling that the art is that experience. ical process. I do not think the only way That is where the power lies. 1 Men pes related that he" . .. simply fagged to view the making of a print is to throw The print, as a thing in itself, through for Whistler and gloried in the task." He a Newtonian grid over everything and sales, functions as a source of money. In also observed that wiping an etching plate place us all in pigeonholes. This may some workshops, prints are referred to required as much skill as painting a picture give a precise and accurate description as stocks and bonds. Sales permit the and that Whistler abhorred collaboration. Nevertheless one day, when the artist's own of a particular collaboration, but it does making of prints to continue. But the proofs were particularly disappointing, nothing to describe, for instance, Robert print also functions as a record of a Whistler told Menpes to try and print a Rauschenberg's non-ego approach to his working toward perfection and the play Palace and "from that day onward I printed Hoarfrost project. Artists tend to be un ing of games that involve all the mem constantly for Whistler." Having told pigeonholeable. Some printers pride bers of the printmaking team. This Men pes that although his hands were doing themselves on their ability to adapt information is used by other artists (going the work, he was but the medium "trans themselves to artists. on the assumption that everyone is an lating the ideas of the Master," Whistler, I understand that the separation that artist) in their own art of communication "wearing canary-coloured kid gloves and Ruth makes between artist and non-art and collaboration. not looking at all like a printer," would call ist is not an elitist statement. And I re Eo HAMIL TON, Los Angeles in and order twenty proofs on his way to gret any misinterpretation of that a garden party. Later, Menpes reported, meaning. The common attitude is that Whistler was so stimulating and encour On "Anonymous" Printers aging that "one felt amply repaid for the artists are very special. And of course and Unconscious Collaborators work." See Mortimer Menpes, Whistler as every artist is special-but no more than I Knew Him (London 1904): 99-101. anyone else. One unfortunate result of A NUMBER OF OTHER ACTIVITIES has pre 2 See Thomas R. Way in Memories of James the separation between printer and art vented me entering as fully as I should McNeill Whistler, the Artist (London 1912): ist might be the lowering of expectation have liked into the debate begun by Ruth 59. " ... my father had in his employ an as to what the print experience could be. Weisberg in "The Syntax of the Print" old French printer, named Cham What is gained from such definitions of [ITP 9 (Fall1986): 52-60] and continued pagne .... [Whistler] begged his help at roles and functions is merely academic. in subsequent issues by Ed Hamilton [see his studio over his plates and for some time As to the balance that Ruth sees be letter above and TTP 10 (Fall 1987): 52- the old man went to Tite Street and was tween art as process and art as a thing 53] . very useful. But he could not get on with in itself, I think there is a misplaced sense Even at this late stage, however, Ire the long hours and short pay, for if he worked 'overtime' he was in the habit of of where the power lies. All you have to main sufficiently intrigued to offer an being paid for it, and this side of affairs did do is compare the amount of time in observation or two, particularly in re not seem to occur to Whistler." volved in the evaluation of a print-an lation to Ruth Weisberg's rejection of 3 In The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler (New average of about ten seconds in a mu "interventionist modes of collaboration" Haven and London 1984): 161- 63, Kath seum-with the amount, and the qual in favor of the Romantic myth of "total erine A. Lochnan relates that Pennell was ity, of the time spent in the making of a control" by one individual. Apparently asked for help by Whistler in June 1893: print. There is a dialogue that goes on she believes that "total control" offers a " ... he must have been concerned about between the artist and the print greater chance of "authenticity, origi his lack of experience, for Whistler reas throughout the many stages of its de nality, and the artistic growth of the art sured him and said that 'I could help him, velopment: the long extended periods ist" and less likelihood of the and he would teach me."' It seems to have proved a case of the blind leading the blind, of time involved in the contemplation of impoverishment attendant upon the however, for only weak proofs eventuated a proof, perhaps even a meditation, and collaborative intercession of a printer. and "every plate was a disappoint the decisions and thoughts involved in This somewhat hierarchical approach (not ment.