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Formation | 1940 |
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Purpose | To support and promote American artists creating and printing works using the silkscreen process. |
Formerly called | Silk Screen Group |
The National Serigraph Society was founded in 1940 by a group of artists involved in the WPA Federal Art Project, including Anthony Velonis, Max Arthur Cohn, and Hyman Warsager. [1] [2] [3] The creation of the society coincided with the rise of serigraphs being used as a medium for fine art. [4] Originally called the Silk Screen Group, the name was soon changed to the National Serigraph Society. [5]
The National Serigraph Society had its own gallery, the Serigraph Gallery at 38 West 57th Street in New York City. [6] They published a quarterly newsletter called the "Serigraph Quarterly." [7] The Society had lectures, published prints, and coordinated traveling shows. [8]
In "The Complete Printmaker: Techniques, Traditions, Innovations", the authors wrote that this organization, by 1940, had an active program of "traveling exhibits, lectures, and portfolios of prints (that) helped to sustain and broaden interest in the serigraph. Artists such as Ben Shahn, Mervin Jules, Ruth Gikow, Edward Landon, and Hyman Warsager were intrigued by the medium". [9]
In their 1970 book “Silk-Screen Printing for Artists & Craftsmen”, Mathilda V. and James A. Schwalbach wrote that a “major force in the development of serigraphy as a fine art was the formation in 1940 of the National Serigraph Society. It has set standards of excellence and has sent hundreds of exhibitions of its members’ work to countries all over the world. These exhibitions are responsible for a good deal of museum interest in the purchase of original prints as part of museum collections”. [10]
J.I. Biegeleisen and Max Arthur Cohn (a co-founder of the Society noted above), writing in 1942 about the origin and development of serigraphy, observed: "Specially noteworthy has been the work of the National Serigraph Society, New York, which has been the source of inspiration, clearing house, and temple of artists and print makers everywhere. The National Serigraph Society and its active director, Doris Meltzer, have been largely responsible for promoting this new print form and raising it to the level of a museum art form". [11] .
In 1944, 1947, and 1951 the Dallas Museum of Art held exhibitions of the National Serigraph Society. [12] [13] [14]
The artists listed in the checklists for these shows include: [12] [13] [14]
Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One colour is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-coloured image or design.
Harry Sternberg (1904–2001), was an American painter, printmaker and educator. He taught at the Art Students League of New York, from 1933 to c. 1966.
Harry Gottlieb was an American painter, screen printer, lithographer, and educator.
Harry Shoulberg was an American expressionist painter. He was known to be among the early group of WPA artists working in the screen print (serigraph) medium, as well as oil.
Edmond Casarella was an American printmaker, painter, and sculptor based in the New York metropolitan area. He developed the innovative use of a layered cardboard printing matrix that could be carved like a woodcut, enabling the inexpensive creation of large-scale works.
Ruth Gikow was an American visual artist known primarily for her work as a genre painter. Her paintings often depict human figures interacting with an urban environment.
Riva Helfond was an American artist and printmaker best known for her social realist studies of working people's lives.
Sylvia Wald was an American visual artist. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Moore Institute of Art, she began as a painter in the style of the American social realist school, before turning to Abstract Expressionism through her pioneering work in silk screening and sculptural collage. She has been noted for her "wide range of expression, diversity of media and technical excellence."
Beatrice Mandelman, known as Bea, was an American abstract artist associated with the group known as the Taos Moderns. She was born in Newark, New Jersey to Anna Lisker Mandelman and Louis Mandelman, Jewish immigrants who imbued their children with their social justice values and love of the arts. After studying art in New York City and being employed by the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project (WPA-FAP), Mandelman arrived in Taos, New Mexico, with her artist husband Louis Leon Ribak in 1944 at the age of 32. Mandelman's oeuvre consisted mainly of paintings, prints, and collages. Much of her work was highly abstract, including her representational pieces such as cityscapes, landscapes, and still lifes. Through the 1940s, her paintings feature richly textured surfaces and a subtly modulated, often subdued color palette. New Mexico landscape and culture had a profound influence on Mandelman's style, influencing it towards a brighter palette, more geometric forms, flatter surfaces, and more crisply defined forms. One critic wrote that the "twin poles" of her work were Cubism and Expressionism. Her work is included in many major public collections, including large holdings at the University of New Mexico Art Museum and Harwood Museum of Art.
Anthony Velonis was an American painter and designer born in New York City who helped introduce the public to silkscreen printing in the early 20th century. He married Elizabeth Amidon, with whom he had four children.
Max Arthur Cohn (1903–1998) was an English-born American artist. His family immigrated to the United States when he was two years old.
Ruth Chaney (1908-1973) was an American artist known for her printmaking.
Louise Arnstein Freedman was an American artist, known for illustration, lithography and serigraphy.
Harry Shokler (1896–1978) was a 20th-century American artist known for his oil paintings and screen prints. Using a realist approach that produced what one critic called an "exactness of rendition", he made colorful landscapes, cityscapes, and marine scenes as well as some notable portraits. He helped pioneer silkscreen printmaking in the 1930s and wrote an influential guide explaining and demonstrating the method. He gave few solo or small group exhibitions in commercial galleries and showed his work mainly from his own studio and in non-profit venues.
Hyman J. Warsager (1909–1974) was an American artist known for his printmaking.
Richard Floethe (1901–1988) was an American artist. He served as the art director of the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) New York City poster division and then went on to illustrate numerous books.
Ernest Hopf was a German-American artist known for his silk screen prints.
Mervin Jules (1912–1994) was an American artist known for his silk screen prints.
Joseph Rajer was an American artist known for his woodcuts and serigraphs.
This is a timeline of 20th-century printmaking in America.