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
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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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Season’s greetings!

December 21, 2012 by 2 Comments

Merry Christmas!!

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.

Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix

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.

Try and have a merry christmas this year! David Hockney

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In memory of Robert Hughes, 1938 – 2012

August 8, 2012 by 3 Comments

The International Print collection at the National Gallery of Australia has a special, historic connection to Robert Hughes. In 1973 – almost a decade before the Gallery opened its doors to the public – Hughes alerted then director James Mollison to the fact that master-printer Kenneth Tyler was looking to sell his collection of printers’ proofs. Tyler, who set up the Gemini GEL workshop in Los Angeles, had decided to move to the east coast and was looking for a buyer to help fund a new workshop there. Hughes was aware that the National Gallery in Canberra was committed to building a world class collection of international works, and that Tyler wanted to see his works kept together – preferably in a public museum. The National Gallery was a perfect fit.

Details of this important acquisition, which laid the foundations for the Kenneth Tyler printmaking collection, are recounted on our website by Senior Curator Jane Kinsman, who interviewed Hughes about the acquisition in 2002:
http://nga.gov.au/InternationalPrints/Tyler/Default.cfm?MnuID=5

Hughes’ death will be felt throughout the international art world, and particularly here in his native Australia.

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Remembering Maurice Sendak

May 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

Ken Tyler shares his memories of friend and collaborator, Maurice Sendak:

I was not exposed to Maurice’s books as a young person, but fortunately as an adult I read his books and knew him as a friend.  His unique imagination, wit and humor enlightened all those he touched with his art and friendship.

He was the epitome of the irascible and loving relative whose stories taught and amused you.  Knowing Maurice was very special.  Collaborating with him on his prints and book projects endeared me to his work and enriched my life. He will be remembered and missed and live on in my life as one of the most significant people I have had the privilege to know.

In 2002 I remember visiting Maurice with my wife Marabeth.  He wanted to show us the book titled ‘Brundibar,’ that he and Tony Kushner were working on.  We sat around his drawing table as he proceeded to read to us the whole story, stopping occasionally to describe the characters in greater detail or embellish on the WW II war story.   It was an experience we will forever cherish.

I believe his art will continue to educate and enlighten each new generation, no matter how young or old they are when through his work he enters their lives.

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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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