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In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of The
Washington Print Club, an exhibit in the Fairchild Gallery has
on display a twenty-year retrospective of fine prints by Washington-area
artists, published on the covers of The Washington Print Club
Quarterly. A non-profit membership organization of artists,
collectors, professionals, and print enthusiasts, The Washington
Print Club was established in 1964 to "bring collectors together
and provide opportunities for learning more about the field through
exhibitions, demonstrations and lectures," as founding member
Mary Hewes told The Sunday Star in 1965. With this vision,
energy, and enthusiasm, a handful of young Washingtonians established
a dynamic new forum for the study and appreciation of fine prints
and other works on paper.
Lou Stovall, Hearts VIII,
2000. Silkscreen; 52/70.
The Washington Print Club pursued a creative agenda, commissioning
posters and prints from emerging local artists, arranging printmaking
demonstrations and symposia, sponsoring tours of public and private
collections, and mounting regular exhibitions. Its first exhibition,
in 1965, was held in the gallery of Washington's 16th Street Jewish
Community Center.
Among the club's memorable past undertakings were a series of
biennial "High School Graphics" exhibitions. Some of
those judging the exhibitions, such as Sam Gilliam and Percy Martin,
are featured in our current exhibition.
To celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the The Washington Print
Club began reproducing original prints by local artists on the
cover of its quarterly publication. The cover illustrations emphasize
the importance of hand-pulled prints (i.e., prints created from
an original matrix, such as an etching plate, lithographic stone
or carved wood block), and the selected artist should have a strong
body of work in this medium. Once selected for the Quarterly,
the artist provides a statement about his or her work, and an
informative article on the artist is included in each issue.
We are fortunate to have several master printmakers represented
among the first decade of Quarterly covers, including Un'ichi
Hiratsuka, Jacob Kainen, Lynd Ward, and Prentiss Taylor. Artists
and printmakers such as these made a significant contribution
in establishing Washington as an active and vibrant fine arts
community in the late twentieth century and in inspiring- as teachers
and mentors-a new generation of printmakers, several of whom appear
in this exhibition. Ranging in subject and style from autobiographical
content and whimsy to abstraction, the prints exhibited here demonstrate
their artists' commitment to the graphic arts, as well as the
technical mastery required to achieve such vivid and striking
personal expressions.
In the 1990s, the print club transferred its cover art prints
to Special Collections Division under the supervision of Curator
of Prints Joseph A. Haller, S.J., one of the club's advisors.
The collection of Washington Print Club cover prints was acquired
through the generosity of the artists, either as outright gifts
or for a fraction of the retail price, thus making it possible
to assemble an impressive array of extraordinary works produced
in and around Washington during the last two decades.
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