ak ie . FIFTY PRINTS Oi A a ee ae : oer ml CAN FNSTITUTE OF GRAPHYTC ARTS Zoek yY PRINTS EXHIBITED BY THE INSTITUTE HOY, AN INTRODUCTION BY ROCKWELL KENT ~NEW YORK: WILLIAM: EDWIN: RUDGE: THE ART 1 Sor ss: OR THEir AGENTS RETAIN: pope : fi. 7 Us 7 REPRODUC le Nati RaQeD Ur Gels] O“N ROCKWELL Ir might be said that a too generous considera- tion is given by the press and by periodicals of art to painting, in that the costliness of paint- ings and the limited activity of our museums in that field of contemporary art restricts the possession and enjoyment of them to a privi- leged few. The possibility of ultimate posses- sion is not to be lightly disassociated from the participation in any experience so intimate and stirring as those that life and art some- times afford, and we may consider cost as a real factor in what popularity an art may achieve. Granting that the cost of prints puts them within the reach of any purchaser, it should at the same time be realized that all prints, as they are here considered, are “originals” in the same precious sense as a unique paint- ing, and that the various processes of making prints lend themselves to the most adequate expression of the artist’s vision of beauty. In order that the art of print making may be more generally respected as an art of many BY KENT “originals,” and that its many different forms may be accepted as of equal dignity we un- dertake a brief description of how prints are made. A print is the finished original of a design of which the plate, stone, or block from which it is the impression represents—even when, completed, it leaves the hand of the artist— only one stage in the process of making the print. To maintain a standard of high quality in prints the editions are usually limited. Prints may by their processes be divided into three classes of which the following types are best known: the etching, the lithograph and the woodcut. The etching plate is of metal and the design is etched or eaten into the plate. The plate before printing is completely coated with ink; the ink is then wiped off the surface of the plate but left filling the etched lines. Then the plate is printed, the paper being slightly forced into the ink filled lines to receive the impression. The result is a print in which the design appears in infinitesimal relief. That re- lief is characteristic of the engraving and the mezzotint. Lithographs are printed from a stone or porous surfaced plate on which the design has been drawn, or transferred, in a greasy medi- um which is sympathetic toink.Thelithograph shows no relief or impression; it is flat. Woodcuts, or wood block prints, are im- pressions from blocks the surface of which has been cut away to leave the black lines of the design standing. In wood block prints the design appears as slightly pressed into the paper. Linoleum printsare of the same nature. One may say that, as far as art is concerned, all processes are equally difficult or simple. They each yield their proper and different results. And that the artist chooses at all to produce prints rather than drawings is in con- sideration both of the nature of the result and of the economic necessity of making many originals of one design. Print making is a democratic art. As to the critical evaluation of prints: un- less that can be done in such terms as may equally be applied to the consideration of painting and, in a less detailed sense, to all art, it could only serve to differentiate the art of print making from the, broadly speaking, intentional identity of all the arts of expres- sion. And there, having by all experience been all they feel and all that they are moved to do, . we are unwilling to venture. We have little ; patience with the precious critical approachto art which would discover the experience of ies 5 life, and we regard the aesthetics of art as identical with the prevailing aesthetics of our : ; universe which in their totality are that uni- verse as the senses apprehend it. Nor do we believe that the dissection of | design into its aesthetic elements can add a a candle power to its illumination: There’s too” z much explaining of art. The less justifying of md ourselves and others we indulge in the less _ we'll get encumbered with relationships that — don’t belong to us. If any problem exists be- : of regarding the public and being interested in it, one might appropriately tender some ex- : planation to the high serenity of art of the — the public mind; and as we may suppose it to ag be the aim of the psychologist to dispose the he of what is already an elucidation might better address himself to clarifying men’s faculties of perception. 1 ete ae Of these fifty prints there are a few that I would love to possess, many that I like, some that I’m indifferent to, and several that to me are dreadful. There has been no intention, I must believe, on the part of either of the two distinguished judges to present their choice of prints as being in any absolute sense the best prints of the year. The groups stand as an expression, within prescribed limits, of the judges’ taste. They are submitted for the personal re-evaluation of everyone who sees them. And in the scarcely more than technical difference that appears to separate the “mod- ern” from the “conservative” group one may discover either unwillingness or inability on the part of the “modern” judge to make a clear distinction. It was both. He holds art to be essentially and properly untraditional, that it is liable or susceptible to any variation of form which the creator’s genius may require; and that the occasional periodic resemblances which art assumes, and which are the basis of academic classification, are relatively unim- portant; that, in other words, the manner of art is not essentially related to its content nor a matter properly of anyone’s too serious concern. It may be that the extremes of weakness or of senseless fashion which the art of every period persistently reverts to are the basis for the popular division of art into “schools,” for genius would appear to elude the yard stick. The kinship of genius, the essential likeness of its works of every period is more apparent and infinitely more significant than its alleged relationship at any time to the schools of its day; and it is as manifestly unfair to class a Ryder or a Winslow Homer with a school on which the banalities of a National Academy have put the stamp of character as to confuse Von Gogh and Picasso with their bewildered “modern” followers. It is not for even the most qualified judge of art, if one can qualify to judge, to interpret the meaning of art or to assert that it essen- tially has meaning. We may be moved by beauty or conceive of it without a thought of what it signifies; and a perceived significance may still give out no hint of what. To the prayer that those who may look at these Fifty Prints dispose themselves to the simple enjoyment of their qualities, we may add that with maybe no exception their lan- guage of expression should offer no problem to a simple and unschooled intelligence. ROcKWELL KENT 3 Washington Square North New York ae oF pn NE ay pal ei —yslltige TP oe ee, = Pha eS ee een Bayes Sue. 1. Jonn Taytor Arms La Mangia, Siena ETCHING 2. Witt1am AverBAcH-LEvy Elsbeth sorr GROUND ETCHING Fd AOS, Ay mee Mea Py ee orl0 BLOCK PRINT El Vel 3. Gustav BAUMANN ate +) 2 SS RN ES ~~ ETCHING 4. Spars GALLAGHER Cribbage © © tee SES BR UTE LE IO A = mes Bc Tce dea enna eeeectat nna me mnesccseeen. - el ct ee a 5. Frances GEARHART Heart of the Canyon BLOCK PRINT Fisher Harbor pry PO 6. ArMIN HANSEN 7. AtrreD Hurry Gossips ETCHING 8. CHarLes B. KEELER Road to Guejar AQUATINT 10. Vernon T. Kirxsripe The Gypsy Shawl ETCHING ESN SS MR OR ee Po NU es Wy Airy Pin VVons \ A NP whe at meee «©: > wy X .s : 7 a eal, ven, S Wve i pve (ses Tee: “yyy gle \ Ws oe rN aoe “sh id a ~\ wy ‘i Ms 7, nero ar aN CEE et Wand AN aie : 7) wy a np WL UN CaN i Ni a se RaeegALast ive Ak ey, vy att ANg yas Na at ay : ‘ DW \s ‘ he a ; Py de { 5 . ‘ wi ‘ LANKREG 11. J.J. Lankes The Lane woopcur 12. KATHARINE Merritt Recreation Hour pry POINT aah \\ ‘Hip (AN j {- sa a : EZ, & it; 4 hi S ‘e Di f jb... Ti oe ta ee wr we) 13. Cuartes L. Morean Barcelona Wharf vRy POINT ii = = ani dy, i int i if yy == Wal yy iN ete Wi || py it im { Ait 14. THomas W. Nason Onthe Maine Coast woopcuT 2 i Pe ae eee 1 eee ee gs a ne ee ee) eee ¥ HR SE ae ROS asada 15. B.J.O.Norpreipt Man from Arroyo Hondo "ETCHING 16. Ror Partrincre Shuksan ETCHING a a (eee th, ask 17. GrorGE Resuter Fruit Stand in Florence DRY POINT Ty om ee ee Peek = Ss wen ——S >, te on = ~- ve. > ee a a e yy -, <>- of eee 0 Ee oe ec en ee ec. eee 18. CHauncry F. Ryper Winter Brook pry POINT SARA \ ~ * Birger Sander AMerpnisse 6 Vx Fytuc dy | ——— = | ; . 4 19. Bircer SANDZEN Moonrise on Blue River LITHOGRAPH - : oot RE” ig tt cine eto ea ere, spay tates ¢ at wey 20. Lez Sturces Mountain Trails ETCHING Ae ma gg NS EF DRY POINT 3 Hill . Lae) QR weg & =) o i=) io} ie) = oS s R ‘2 ise 8 =) Ry = aS) N Pp i nN > (e) = — ] = a Q < e*) ie) a QR 23. J. W. Winker Simon’s Wharf, London ETCHING SVT eng “a. tg ah | ig — Ries; Mat \\ $2 Pipick As ‘ vy Hh rl { j | 24. FrRanKLIN T. Woop Mariotti, Artist ETCHING 5 es i 25. C.O. Woopsury Top of the World LiTHoGRAPH 26. Peaey Bacon Penguin Island pry POINT 97. GrorcEe Bippie Bringing Home the Cows LITHOGRAPH a eo C/A TRI 28. PauLINE BLake Leona Gabriel LINOLEUM CUT ray wen AY’ LAAN AAW Ne en =e. TMT PITTITYVTVIVIV TTY VTE 29. Fiske Boryp New York Harbor ETCHING ey 4 eet ay < fe ic} } I a 8 5 Ay baa Ly RM a a) < Z < 1S) a Z Q iS) q - S ise) nN \ - ———— 5 NET acon en SES \ i / i | S ie { yt } | = i S ; - | i ! , = fi >\R WET Y | =]! \ sae = \ mM J ] i 2 i ) 4 4, ith =\" MW i | Wf ale hy \\ "7 Yan 2 hf biitititlee lags 31. Howarp N. Coox Boat Building woopcuT 32. Lewis C. Dante, Self Destruction of Evil LitHOGRAPH 33. Isam1 Dot East Wind woopcut “- 4 ‘Ss & * + VOY AX) sy 34. Mase Dwicntr Guignolette LITHOGRAPH we | xy 35. Eucrene C. Fitscno Gay WhiteWay LITHOGRAPH 36. Wanna Gaa Gumbo Lane 4 se * FAIS 4} we si LITHOGRAPH _ IW wate go ON IDO KE BW, - * WANDA CalO= 37. Emit Ganso Halberstadt ETCHING 388. Franz Geritz Craters, Mono Lake LINOLEUM CUT ¥ay, 39. Tuomas Hanprortu Sfazr, Tunis ETCHING 40. RockwELt Kent August 23 woopcutT a ea as Yasue KYA vesn, 27 Girt eA ING a “ ; { 41. Yasuo Kuntyosn1 Girl Leaning Against Tree LITHOGRAPH | a. hull ee ee 7 —/ — ae Gis Er : ‘ , « " > lbs es Cuxekia_ Lois Lensk1 Toward the Sea LINOLEUM CUT 42, 43. CuaRLEs Locke Portrait of a Banker LITHOGRAPH Se Geen ———— i! * a ih Se 44. L. J. Meissner Shoes woopcut 45. I. J. Sancer Howse and Barn LITHOGRAPH EYE, ; kh My, iY, Gy bis i) ais i> ‘ » Ds, (a See oe | SF xa site Ee hl. SS te, ‘aa . eens SNOT hihtvenatll ane wr seemere f 46. Roperick SEIDENBERG Church of the Paulist Fathers ETCHING 47. Leon Unperwoop’ Bird and Fish woopcut 48. 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