Bernard Jacobson Gallery is pleased to present “Impressions, the Fine Art of Original Prints” in the New York location from November 4th – December 20th, 2014.

The exhibition includes works by: Anthony Caro, Sam Francis, Howard Hodgkin, Leon Kossoff, Sol LeWitt, Robert Motherwell, Ben Nicholson, Ed Ruscha, Pierre Soulages, William Tillyer and Marc Vaux.

Bernard Jacobson Gallery was founded in 1969, publishing and distributing prints by artists including Robyn Denny, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Leon Kossoff, Henry Moore, Richard Smith, Ed Ruscha and William Tillyer. This was the time of the print boom, both in Europe and in America, with many of the most important Print Ateliers opening up shop and offering this medium to established artists and new comers alike. It was a time of extraordinary innovation in the print medium and the popularity and enthusiasm for these works has never abated.

Included in this exhibition are prints from this early period, including those of Howard Hodgkin, a master painter but fledgling print maker at that time. Published by Bernard Jacobson and starting with lithography the artist went on, with expert guidance from master printer, Jack Shirreff, to discover in 1986 lift-ground etching and aquatint with carborundum. Two of the prints in this show: Blue Listening Ear and Red Listening Ear, are representative of this period.

Also included in this exhibition are the early prints by Sol LeWitt. Published by Parasol Press, these seminal and spare conceptual print works pre-date the explosion of color that we have come to associate with this artist. “Straight Lines in all Directions,” is a set of 15 small prints (10 ½ x 10 ½ inches each) from 1973. As the title suggests, this series maps a single line, tracing all possible directions across a page. When these are exhausted, two crossing lines are mapped in every conceivable combination and so on up to 4 lines. “Six Geometric Figures,” from 1979, illustrates the circle, square, triangle, rectangle, parallelogram and trapezoid. Each shape is exquisitely etched in white on a velvet dark black paper.

Another set, published by Bernard Jacobson, is by the eminent British painter, William Tillyer. He studied etching at the Slade School, London in the early sixties and was awarded a French Government Scholarship to study gravure under William Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris, in 1962. Tillyer is considered today a master printer and the set in this exhibition, The Flatford Charts,” from 2010, is certainly among his best achievements in print.

Publications by Bernard Jacobson also include two etchings, one with aquatint, by Leon Kossoff from 1984. Both depict milling crowds in London. A Londoner all of his life, (he currently lives in Willesden,) his depictions of its’ urban landscape remain important and central to his body of work.

Also included are etchings from the 60’s by Ben Nicholson, lithographs from the 60’s by Sam Francis, a large screen print by Pierre Soulages from 1988, and more recently, from 2011, a haunting metal relief print from Ed Ruscha, “Ghost Station.” Prints by Robert Motherwell include an important and rare lithograph from 1975, Bastos.

Bernard Jacobson Gallery

17 East 71st Street
New York (NY) 10021 United States
Tel. +1 (212) 8791100
mail@jacobsongallery.com
www.jacobsongallery.com

Opening hours

Tuesday - Saturday
From 10am to 6pm

Related images
  1. Howard Hodgkin, "Birthday Party", 1977, Lithograph with hand coloring, Edition of 50, 16 x 20 5/8 inches
  2. Howard Hodgkin, "Bleeding", 1982, Lithograph with hand coloring, Edition of 100, 36 x 59 5/8 inches
  3. Howard Hodgkin, "Blue Listening Ear", 1986, Etching with carborundum and hand coloring, Edition of 100, 18 5/8 x 25 1/4 inches