Hop’s invitational exhibition highlights printmaking
The prints on display in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery illustrate printmaking's ability to address a variety of subject matters.
By Jane Reynolds, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The "Dartmouth Invitational Print Exhibition" currently on display in the Hopkins Center's Jaffe-Friede Gallery, proves that printmaking is an art form every bit as varied in technique and content as its more well-known counterparts -- namely photography and painting -- that often adorn the gallery's walls.
Part of a biennial series of invitational exhibits focusing on different artistic media, the exhibit is hosted by the Studio Art Exhibition Committee, a group composed of seven studio art faculty members. This year, the committee chose 14 printmakers from across the country whose bodies of work demonstrate a variety in both process and subject matter.
"Our goal was to give the students and the Dartmouth and Upper Valley community a sampling of the broad range of contemporary printmaking process," Studio Art Exhibition Program director Gerald Auten explained.
The works on display vary greatly in their use of basic artistic elements such as color. In one corner of the gallery, James Engelbart's fanciful prints of mice playing accordions bring to mind illustrations in a children's book, while another corner of the room displays visiting professor Jennifer Caine's heavier prints, which were inspired by Dante's "The Divine Comedy."
"I had started reading 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante a little while back, and had also been looking at artists' interpretations of that text, or artists' responses," Caine said. "When I came across [15th century Italian artist] Botticelli's drawings of the 'Divine Comedy,' I was really drawn to them for their line quality, the linear composition, the lightness of touch -- they are truly exquisite drawings."
Drawing inspiration from Michelino's pieces, many of Caine's black-and-white prints depict chaotic scenes, with bird-like figures gathering in swarms on the paper. In others, the use of lines calls to mind pages of printed text torn from an old book. With this variety, Caine addresses both the content and the form of Dante's epic poem.
Caine said she wanted her prints to reflect the entanglements of the journey Dante describes.
"I would like [viewers] to feel like they're entering, or they can access, a different type of space, or another space without that being a literal space," she said.
Contrasting starkly with Caine's prints are Betsey Garand's bright, modern-looking prints of seeds and plants. A professor at Amherst College, Garand said she draws inspiration from her childhood spent on a farm in New Hampshire.
Pop art-like cutouts of vegetables and plants sit atop neon backdrops in Garand's prints. She said she likes to employ many layers in her work, all the while keeping bold geometric shapes in the foreground to emphasize depth.
"I like to also use elements of flat shape too, so I have spatial depth, but then I'll have an area of geometric shape to contrast and balance that," she said.
Other prints featured in the exhibit, like James Bohary's, also use popping color like Garand's prints, while others merely use black and white to create a focus on the subject matter, as in Caine's interpretations of the "Divine Comedy" and Sylvia Schuster's portrayals of African women.
On display through mid-March, the prints provide visual journeys for the viewer who stops in. The Jaffe-Friede Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.