East Coast / West Coast: A Look at American Art Through Prints

Postwar New York, in the meantime, with an artist population inspired by the European avant-garde, many of whom had relocated to the U.S., emerged as a center of artistic activity, challenging Paris as the center of the international art world. Abstract Expressionism would emerge in the 1950s, followed by the rise of Neo-Dada, Pop, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art in the 1960s and 1970s. Lee Bontecou, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol would emerge in a multi-culturally charged milieu that would forever change how the public looked and perceived art.

Printmaking was one of the democratizing mediums that brought together the disparate styles of both coasts. In 1940, the pioneering and innovative British printmaker Stanley William Hayter arrived in New York from Paris, to open a second Atelier 17. He encouraged a communal atmosphere where both emerging and established artists often worked side by side. His knowledge of intaglio techniques and his devotion to original printmaking attracted countless artists, from the famed Surrealist Joan Miró to the young Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock.

Atelier 17’s spirit lived on in countless new print shops that flourished from Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) on Long Island to Tamarind in New Mexico, from Crown Point Press in the Bay Area to Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles. A veritable print renaissance, postwar American artists from both coasts gathered at these shops to create prints much like their European counterparts had done with verve since the nineteenth century.

Artists continue to be intrigued by the varied techniques, processes, and theoretical implications associated with printmaking. Once bound by the limitations of traditional methods, artists today have a seemingly endless number of options to achieve a desired result. With master printers continuing to experiment with technical processes, interested artists are provided with the latest advances in printmaking, such as the use of digital technology.

Upsilon Gallery is pleased to present a selection of iconic offerings by artists from the East and West coasts demonstrating their respective sensibilities. For these artists, prints and printmaking was and continues to be not merely a side occupation, but a process affording endless experimentation of material methodology and studio collaboration to create visionary artworks unique to the medium.

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