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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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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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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