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

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

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’.

The National Gallery of Australia’s Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix travelling exhibition opened at the Araluen Arts Centre on Saturday, April 27. In conjunction with the exhibition, Sydney based mural artist and printmaker Mini Graff conducted a screen printing workshop at Central Craft in Alice Springs.

ABOVE: punching out small circles to create a Benday dot effect stencil; the finished stencil

BELOW: Mini Graff (wearing hat) and workshop participants working at the lightbox

]]> http://tylerblogs.com/2013/04/30/screen-printing-in-alice-springs/feed/ 0 tylercollection Creating a Benday dot stencil The finished Benday dot stencil Mini Graff (in hat) and workshop participants at the light box Mini Graff (in hat) and workshop participants at the light box http://tylerblogs.com/2013/03/28/behind-the-scenes-treatment-of-robert-motherwells-el-negro/ http://tylerblogs.com/2013/03/28/behind-the-scenes-treatment-of-robert-motherwells-el-negro/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:14:27 +0000 tylercollection http://tylerblogs.com/?p=886 ]]> 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

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.

We are very pleased to be able to bring you these photographs from the ceremony, courtesy of the Australian Government:

The Hon Kim Beazley AC conducts the Investiture Ceremony for Kenneth Tyler AO

The Hon Kim Beazley AC and Kenneth Tyler AO

Guests at the Investiture Ceremony

Kenneth Tyler AO and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler

]]> http://tylerblogs.com/2013/01/31/kenneth-tyler-ao/feed/ 3 tylercollection The Hon Kim Beasley AC conducts the Investiture Ceremony for Kenneth Tyler AO The Hon Kim Beasley AC & Kenneth Tyler AO The Hon Kim Beasley AC & Kenneth Tyler AO Guests at the Investiture Ceremony for Kenneth Tyler AO Kenneth Tyler AO & Marabeth Cohen-Tyler http://tylerblogs.com/2013/01/16/happy-2013/ http://tylerblogs.com/2013/01/16/happy-2013/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:33:54 +0000 tylercollection http://tylerblogs.com/?p=790 ]]> Robert Rauschenberg’s Horsefeathers thirteen series, 1972-76

Happy New Year to all! It seemed fitting to begin 2013 by taking a closer look at Robert Rauschenberg’s Horsefeathers thirteen series, which is currently on display here at the National Gallery of Australia.

Horsefeathers thirteen I-IV

Robert Rauschenberg was one of the first artists to work with Kenneth Tyler at Gemini GEL when it opened in 1966. Together the pair made several ambitious prints, including Booster, which – when it was printed in 1967 – was the largest lithograph ever editioned. The Horsefeathers thirteen series is another example of technical complexity: the series comprises sixteen works made using a complex mix of techniques, including lithography, screenprint, pochoir, collage and embossing.

Horsefeathers thirteen V-VIII

Rauschenberg consistently returned to collage in his art, and this method of working is demonstrated to great effect in the Horsefeathers thirteen series. In the series Rauschenberg engages us in a game of free association, tapping into our personal lived experience and creating a unique reaction in each viewer. Images from popular culture are juxtaposed with photographs of animals in the wild, newspaper clippings are combined with maps, and arrows draw our focus in several directions simultaneously.

You can read more about Rauschenberg’s work in Jaklyn Babington’s essay here: http://nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg/index.cfm

Horsefeathers thirteen IX-XII

We look forward to bringing you more from the Tyler collection in 2013. Remember, if you have particular questions – or just want to know more about a favourite artist or artwork – you can get in touch with us by commenting here on the blog, or via our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Horsefeathers thirteen XIII-XIV

The Horsefeathers thirteen series will be on display until March – make sure you don’t miss it!

2012 has been a big year for the National Gallery’s Tyler Collection. We have learned the exciting news that Kenneth Tyler will be made an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia at an investiture ceremony in Washington DC on January 23, 2013. Ken has been nominated for this well-deserved honour for his ‘service to the Arts, particularly through the Kenneth Tyler Collection at the National Gallery of Australia and through philanthropy.’

In April the Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix show started its national tour at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, and headed to the Queensland University Art Museum in Brisbane in late June. The fantastic catalogue that accompanies the show, written by curator Jaklyn Babington and designed by Carla Da Silva, won a Printing Industries Craftmanship Award in November.

Jaklyn Babington’s award winning catalogue

Throughout the year, works from the Tyler Collection featured prominently in the Gallery’s changing displays of international art, with series by Jasper Johns, Richard Serra and David Hockney shown in the Pop and Contemporary galleries. Bruce Nauman’s Pay attention – which inspired Tony Albert’s work of the same name – was hung at the entrance to unDISCLOSED the second National Indigenous Art Triennial, and several works by Tyler artists are featured in the Word pictures exhibition currently on display in the Children’s Gallery.

We continued to build the collection’s web presence, launching a new look collection website and creating a Facebook account to reach a broader audience. Assistant Curator Emilie Owens attended the Museums Australia national conference, aptly themed ‘research and collections in a connected world’. Her reflections on the conference can be found in the current issue of IMPRINT magazine.

A particularly exciting development on the web-front is the new Tyler Graphics Ltd ‘Team’ page. The page gives printers and workshop staff who worked with Tyler in his various workshops an opportunity to share their experiences and give readers another perspective on the printmaking process.

The year also occasioned reflection and sadness as it marked the passing of three great artists featured in the collection, namely Ken Price, Paul Jenkins and Maurice Sendak. Robert Hughes, one of the key figures in the early acquisition of Tyler’s prints for the NGA, also passed away.

We wish you all a safe and happy festive season, and look forward to bringing you more from the Tyler Collection in 2013.

]]> http://tylerblogs.com/2012/12/21/seasons-greetings/feed/ 2 tylercollection Merry Christmas!! Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix Try and have a merry christmas this year! David Hockney http://tylerblogs.com/2012/11/22/568/ http://tylerblogs.com/2012/11/22/568/#comments Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:27:57 +0000 tylerblogs http://tylerblogs.wordpress.com/?p=568 ]]>

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.

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!

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.