Kenneth Tyler honoured at IPCNY

May 24, 2013 by Leave a comment

The IPCNY's spring benefit

Each year the International Print Center New York (IPCNY), an institution ‘dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of fine art prints’ holds a spring benefit honouring luminaries of the print world. This year art writer Faye Hirsch, artist Robert Mangold and master-printer Ken Tyler were the honourees celebrated at a function on May 15.

Frank Stella, Tyler’s long-time friend and collaborator, presented Tyler with his award and gave a presentation discussing Tyler’s unique printmaking career. These images were taken during the evening by  Liam Alexander for IPCNY.

Frank Stella talking about Ken Tyler's career at the IPCNY's spring benefit

Frank Stella discussing Ken Tyler’s career at the IPCNY’s spring benefit. On the screen is an image of Tyler at the Gemini GEL studios in the 1960s.

Frank Stella & Ken Tyler embrace at IPCNY's spring benefit

Frank Stella and Ken Tyler embrace as Stella presents Tyler with his award.

Kenneth Tyler at IPCNY's spring benefit

Ken Tyler giving his acceptance speech at the IPCNY’s spring benefit. On screen is an image of an impression of Robert Motherwell’s Elegy study I lithograph being pulled at the Tyler Graphics Ltd studio in Mount Kisco.

You can read about Tyler and Stella’s working relationship here http://bit.ly/16XqoR0 in a lecture that Tyler gave last year when Stella was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.

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Behind the scenes: treatment of Robert Motherwell’s ‘El negro’

March 28, 2013 by Leave a comment

Robert Motherwell’s El negro recently made a trip to the National Gallery of Australia’s paper conservation department for some preventative treatment. We paid a visit to conservator Fiona Kemp to bring you these special behind-the-scenes shots of conservation in action!

You can read more about the making of El negro in the Tyler Graphics Ltd. print documentation here: http://nga.gov.au/internationalprints/tyler/pamphlets/TylerTGL/MotherwellNegro.pdf For more information on Motherwell and his work with Tyler, visit our website: http://nga.gov.au/internationalprints/tyler/DEFAULT.cfm?MnuID=2&ArtistIRN=22859&List=True

A page from the book at rest on the paper press Wearing gloves, Fiona moves the page from the press Spraying the pages to relax the paper fibres The pages looking pristine!

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Ellsworth Kelly’s ‘Colored paper images’

February 27, 2013 by Leave a comment

Ellsworth Kelly Colored paper images II, V and X 1976, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC is currently showing Ellsworth Kelly’s Colored paper images, created with Kenneth Tyler at the Tyler Graphics workshop in Bedford Village in 1976. We thought this was an excellent reason to take a look at the series ourselves and to bring you some images from the candid photography collection. You can find out more about the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition here: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/kelly.shtm.

The Colored paper images project spanned eight months and resulted in 23 works made from coloured paper pulp, shaped using metal molds. The coloured shapes on white grounds are typical of Kelly’s abstract works; however the nature of paper pulp has created a blurring that is quite different to the sharp outlines seen in his paintings and other prints. The images below illustrate the investigative process involved in creating the series.

Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Tyler and John Koller working on the Colored paper images series at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, New York, 1976. Photographs by Betty Fiske

Tyler and Kelly worked with John and Kathleen Koller at the HMP paper mill to create over 50 different colours of paper pulp using numerous methods including powdered pigments, vinyl paint and water-based dyes. Kelly was interested in varying the colour fields in the final works and so deliberately adjusted the amount of colour bleeding and the consistency of pigment in several of the images. He also experimented with the development of the molds for his shapes using pliable metal. The resultant Colored paper images are sophisticated studies in colour and form; their mottled colour fields and blurred edges epitomise the subtleties of paper pulp.

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Josef Albers

November 22, 2012 by

Earlier this month Vogue Australia contacted us for permission to use two of our fabulous Josef Albers prints for their January 2013 issue. This got us thinking about the unique relationship that Kenneth Tyler shared with Albers, and below we have compiled some candid shots to accompany a brief history of the artist and master printer’s working relationship. 

 

Tyler and Albers first worked together at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. When Tyler moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to set up his own print workshop and publishing house – Gemini GEL – Albers’ White line squares was the first print project. This series develops Albers’ colour theories and his unique application of the colour spectrum to images of geometric abstraction. The addition of a precise, white line creates the appearance of four-colours, although only three inks are used. The perfectly registered, luminous lithographs became Tyler’s ‘calling card’ to attract other major artists to the studio, and Albers generously donated a large percentage of the proceeds to fund further projects.

 

 

When, in 1973, Tyler moved to the east coast to establish Tyler Graphics Ltd in BedfordVillage, the inaugural project was again devoted to Albers. Gray instrumentation I, a portfolio of colour screenprints interspersed with text pages written by Albers, was produced in 1974. The series was a remarkable feat, achieving a level of precision that had not been seen in screen-printing before. The crisp, clear colours were inspired by leaves, twigs, scraps of paper and other found materials that Albers requested Tyler match in ink, exactly. The subtle tonal differences in each print required hours of laboured colour-proofing: each of the inks was printed directly onto white paper with no overlap or overprinting. The exercise required a perfect system of colour-matching and a perfect system of registration, which Tyler turned to photographic techniques to achieve.

In the two years that followed, Tyler and Albers collaborated on three further screenprint portfolios: Gray instrumentation II; Mitered squares; and Never before. Never before, which develops ideas that Albers had started exploring twenty-seven years earlier in the 1949 painting Indicating solids, was completed in 1976, just weeks before his death.

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Word pictures

October 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

To celebrate the National Year of Reading the children’s gallery here at the NGA is showing Word Pictures, an exhibition that focuses on the use of text in works of art. Four artists from the Tyler Collection – Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg – are represented. Below we have compiled a selection of  images showing these important artists at work on projects featured – or related to those featured – in the exhibition. Hover your cursor over the images to read descriptions.

Jasper Johns

Alphabet  1969

Johns created a series of works involving the letters of the alphabet at Gemini GEL in 1969. Letters and numbers are a recurring theme in Johns’ art – check out his Color numeral series here: http://tylerblogs.com/2011/03/09/jasper-johns-the-color-numeral-series/

        

Bruce Nauman

Clear vision  1973

In Clear vision Nauman juxtaposes the words ‘clear’ and ‘vision’ with vigorous marks that, ironically, blur the text and render it unclear. We looked at another or Nauman’s text-based works recently: http://tylerblogs.com/?s=bruce+nauman. Below you can see an image of the artist working on a similar project at Gemini GEL.

Claes Oldenburg

The letter Q as beach house, with sailboat  1972

Oldenburg’s  quirky work is one of several created during the same period in which letters take on the characteristics of objects: here the letter Q becomes a beach house, situated idylically on the shores of a tranquil stretch of water. Like Johns, Oldenburg’s work often features letters and numbers. The image below shows him at work on a later print Chicago stuffed with numbers, that demonstrates this preoccupation.

      

Robert Rauschenberg

Cardbird III  1971

Rauschenberg’s Cardbird series plays with language in different ways. Aside from the obvious inclusion of the text printed on the works themselves, the title ‘cardbird’ is a play on ‘cardboard’, the material used to create the works. You can read more about the work here: http://nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg/

The Word pictures exhibition runs until February 10, 2013 – don’t miss it!

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New look Tyler Collection website

August 23, 2012 by 2 Comments

Over the past few months we have been compiling new information for the Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler printmaking collection website, and working to make the site easier to use. The results are now online for you to explore here: http://nga.gov.au/InternationalPrints/Tyler/Default.cfm?MnuID=12

An important addition to the site is the new Tyler Graphics Ltd (TGL) team page, dedicated to the immensely talented group of printers and workshop staff that made the astonishing print projects produced at TGL possible. This page reveals the truly collaborative nature of the Tyler workshops and the unique working environment that existed there. To bring you this information we contacted several former staff members and asked them to share with us their memories of the TGL workshops – with some fascinating insights and often amusing recollections.

Yasu Shibata speaks of the excitement surrounding the production of Frank Stella’s The Fountain; the breadth of John Hutcheson’s printmaking knowledge and experience is truly staggering; and Barbara Delano recalls Saturdays with Robert Motherwell. Mark Mahaffey’s recollection of David Hockney’s 1984 visit to the workshop involves a pet rabbit; Kim Halliday reminisces about the camaraderie of the shop; and Duane Mitch remembers burgers and beers after the Chicago Art Fair. More of this valuable background information around the workings of a major print workshop will be added as we continue to make contact with TGL staff members.

We hope you will take a moment to explore the wealth of material available on the website and would love to hear your comments and feedback either here on the blog, or via the Tyler Collection email address: TylerCollection@nga.gov.au

Mark Mahaffey’s pet rabbit, Stones, alongside a Christmas message from David Hockney – just one of the stories that emerged from our discussions with TGL staff members.

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Paul Jenkins, 1923 – 2012

June 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

We are sorry to report the death of  Tyler Collection artist, Paul Jenkins, who passed away on June 9 at the age of 88. Jenkins was a celebrated Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School, whose experiments with pouring, dripping, splashing and pooling paint directly onto canvas translated well into print and papermaking at Tyler’s Bedford Village workshop.

Between 1979 and 1980, Jenkins created several prints with Tyler. These images from our candid photography collection show the spontaneous way in which the artist typically worked. In the parking lot of the workshop, he used buckets and garbage cans to splash dye onto handmade sheets of paper for his West winds series. Inks and pigments were poured and spread directly from their containers, creating vibrant rivulets of colour.

You can read more about Jenkins’ life and work here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jun/21/paul-jenkins

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/arts/design/paul-jenkins-abstract-expressionist-painter-dies-at-88.html

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The Tyler candid photography collection

May 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

The votes are in! You asked for more candid photographs from behind the scenes, so we thought we would begin with an overview of this unique collection.

The Tyler candid photography collection contains thousands of rare candid photographs of artists at work in the  Tyler workshops, as well as in their own studios. The collection is an invalubale resource for students, teachers, scholars and fans of printmaking, providing a unique insight into the working methods of Tyler and his dedicated workshop staff.

Candid photography is shot without the staged lighting, backdrops and poise of professional photographic portraits, so it captures the action of the workshop in a spontaneous and unobtrusive way. The result is like a glimpse into a private photo album, and gives an understanding of the collaborative nature of the printmaking process, characterised by many complex, labour-intensive techniques – but also by happy accidents.

The collection of photographs was compiled over decades by Ken and Marabeth Tyler, and given exclusively to the National Gallery of Australia in 2002. Hundreds of images from the collection have been digitised and made available in photo-essay format on our Tyler website and we are beginning to add albums to our newly created Facebook page.

We are working continuously to digitise new material, so if there is an artist or project you are particularly interested in please let us know!

Below you will find a slideshow selection of images from the collection.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Maurice Sendak, 1928 – 2012

May 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

The much-loved children’s book author and artist, Maurice Sendak, passed away yesterday, May 8, in Danbury, Connecticut. Sendak’s books – with their vivid, fantastical illustrations – have inspired a love of reading in generations of children who were at once terrified and delighted by the raucous adventures of his characters.

Below is a discussion of Sendak’s collaboration with Kenneth Tyler, taken from an article written by Marabeth Cohen-Tyler in 2006. You can access the full version on our website here.

Sendak’s collaborations with Kenneth Tyler began in the 1970s, while he was working on sets and costumes for Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Sendak’s involvement with these operas inspired him in the creation of numerous sketches, drawings, and watercolors, many that were reproduced in his book Nutcracker and several that were printed at Tyler Graphics, employing lithography and intaglio processes. Tyler and Sendak collaborated on these prints and others in the 1970s, the 1980s and in 2002. Sendak, who has been given the accolade ‘the Picasso of children’s books’ proved to be, like Picasso, enamored and highly skillful with printmaking. Sendak’s love of drawing and his joy in the collaborative process resulted numerous states for each image.

Circumstances prevented any of these editions from being published, with the exception of the 1984 lithograph, Faithful Nutcracker. The inventory of rare proofs was signed in 2002, and the prints apportioned to the artist, to the National Gallery of Australia’s Kenneth Tyler Print Collection, and to Kenneth Tyler himself for his personal collection. Sendak hand–watercoloured some of the black and white intaglios, particularly Wild Thing and Ida. As a colourist, his painting on the prints adds another dimension. Nonetheless, these graphic works are equally powerful in their black and white original form, given the strength of Sendak’s masterful drawing and his etched lines and washes. 

We would like to revisit an enduring favourite: one of the wild things. May Sendak’s indomitable imagination continue to inspire children and adults alike for generations to come. 



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Remembering John Chamberlain and Helen Frankenthaler

January 17, 2012 by 3 Comments

 

  

John Chamberlain, 1927-2011  and Helen Frankenthaler, 1928-2011 

The closing month of 2011 saw the deaths of two great artists represented in theTyler collection – John Chamberlain on December 21 and Helen Frankenthaler on December 27. During the course of their long careers these two artists made significant contributions to the art world and their loss will be deeply felt.

Chamberlain worked with Tyler at Gemini GEL in 1971 to produce a small multiple: Le molé. The basis for this sculpture was a crumpled paper shopping bag that Chamberlain coated in polyester resin and then cast. It was then aluminium plated and covered with silicon oxide, giving the work a lustre that resembles the assemblages created from car parts for which he is best known.

 Le molé, 1971

Read more about Chamberlain’s life and work in the New York Times: http://ow.ly/8vCqf

Frankenthaler and Tyler worked together for decades on several projects. Beginning in 1976 and continuing until the close of the Tyler Graphics workshop in 2001, theirs was a working relationship marked by innovation and adventure. The prints she created at Tyler Graphics are typical of her signature style, where pools of pools of colour spread spontaneously across the surface. Achieving the fluidity that is so characteristic of her canvases was no mean feat in print, but a challenge that Tyler met with his usual enthusiasm and technical skill. The resulting prints are some of the most beautiful to come out of the workshop.

Below you can see a selection of works from some of the projects Frankenthaler completed at Tyler Graphics. You can read a New York Times article published after her death here: http://ow.ly/8vCxk

         

Essence mulberry, 1977

 

Tales of Gengi III, 1998

Madame Butterfly, 2000

More information about both Chamberlain and Frankenthaler and their work with Tyler can be found on our website: http://nga.gov.au/InternationalPrints/Tyler/Default.cfm. You can also read Roberta Smith’s article discussing Chamberlain and Frankenthaler here: http://ow.ly/8vCoW.

Ken Tyler’s personal account of working with Frankenthaler is forthcoming.

 

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