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Hello and welcome to Insider Insights.
I'm Ann Meisinger, Assistant Educator in Public Programs and Creative Practice at The Met.
In this virtual series, we take a closer look at objects in the collection and in our special exhibitions.
Today we'll be looking at innovative prints by the artist Mary Cassatt and select British modernists
with Curator Connie McPhee and Associate Curator Jennifer Farrell
both in the Department of Drawings and Prints.
All of the prints we'll be discussing today are on view in the exhibition,
"Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Collectors' Collections."
To find out more about all the works included in the show,
be sure to take a look at the virtual exhibition guide
and you can find the link to that guide in the program description for today's event.
Thank you Ann for your kind introduction.
Jennifer and I are so happy to have this opportunity to present a selection of works
currently on view in the Drawings and Prints galleries at The Met.
Once the Museum re-opens, we hope that many of you will visit them in person.
I will discuss some ground-breaking color aquatints that Mary Cassatt made between 1890 and 91
and Jennifer will then talk about a striking group of early twentieth-century linocuts
created by artists associated with London’s Grosvenor School.
All of these helped to launch Modern color printmaking.
Cassatt was born near Pittsburg in 1844, studied in Philadelphia, then moved to Paris
when the American Civil War ended in 1865.
She remained based in France for the rest of her life.
Initially she followed a conventional route and submitted works to the annual Salon exhibitions,
but soon began to feel constrained by the official structures that governed the art world.
When her submissions were refused by the Salon in 1875, she enthusiastically accepted an
invitation to join the newly formed Impressionist group and soon became good friends with
Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot.
She also began to experiment with etching.
The prints that we are looking at here, come from a set that she made over a decade later,
now considered to be her most significant achievements in the medium.
When Cassatt made these, her Impressionist associates had begun to seek new visual modes.
One path was suggested by a large exhibition of Japanese woodcuts
mounted at the École des Beaux-Arts in the spring of 1890.
The show offered Parisians an in-depth look at the full history of this oriental art form.
Particularly interesting to Cassatt were 18th century Ukiyo-e, or floating world, images
centered on figures rather than landscapes.
Cassatt visited the exhibition several times, acquired examples herself and, by that fall
was hard at work on her own set of prints made in response.
She adopted the tall vertical format and intimate domestic subjects typical of Ukiyo-e,
showing women engaged in domestic routines.
Here, having a dress fitted, writing a letter and bathing.
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Cassatt’s new Japanese-influenced aesthetic led her to flatten forms and treat patterns
in semi-abstract ways.
She scratched drypoint lines directly into her printing plates, to separate and define
the color fields, as black outlines do in Japanese woodblocks.
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To achieve her effects, Cassatt used intaglio methods rather than relief, however,
this means that her lines and areas of tone lay just below the surface of her metal printing
plates and had to be printed under pressure to transfer the inks to paper.
She used aquatint to create tone, dusting a powdered wax called rosin onto her plates,
then etched zones selectively with acid.
In the print at left, tonal areas were made with aquatint, while lines framing the washstand
and describing the woman’s hair were made with drypoint.
Utamaro’s woodblock print of women with a caged bird, at right, is the kind of
image that influenced Cassatt as she devised flattened zones of pattern to indicate form
and suggest space, setting up a visual dialogue between
the striped skirt, the flowered rug and the decorated pitcher.
Like Utamaro, she set the patterns against a plain undecorated zone above
and left areas of paper untouched by ink.
The paper’s natural color is used to indicate the white
marble top of a washstand, for example.
Utamaro does the same with his women’s faces and hands.
"The Bath" shows a mother testing the water in a tub before bathing her child
and is the most self-consciously Japanese of Cassatt’s set.
The shape of the tub, the squatting pose, loose gown, and even the facial features
of the subjects have an oriental feel.
This was the first print that Cassatt worked on and it took seventeen states, or stages,
to achieve the final result.
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At left you see a print created from one plate, of two, in its fifth state of seventeen,
printed in black, to allow Cassatt to check her progress.
The final version at right was created using two plates,
inked in black and a limited range of colors,
then carefully printed one top of the other with the help of a professional printer.
I should mention here that the works I have been showing you were all given to the Museum’s
newly founded Print Department in 1916 by the brothers Arthur and Paul Sachs.
As sons of a one of the early partners of Goldman Sachs, they both became collectors
and bankers.
With Paul leaving banking to serve as Curator at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum.
Enthusiastic supporters of The Met’s new department, they realized that the collection
should include both old masters and newer, experimental art.
Working together, Paul acquired and gave a full set of Cassatt’s color impressions
while Arthur found early states printed in black that shed light on the artist’s process.
We should remember that in 1916, Cassatt was still alive and these works entered the collection
as demonstrations of experimental printmaking by an extraordinary,
still under-appreciated woman artist.
The subtle range of colors that Cassatt chose were likely influenced by the faded inks of
Japanese works she owned, and the way she achieved her effects was unusual.
She revived a late 18th century method of inking that used small rags to dab colors
on to different areas her plates.
The artist created about 25 impressions of her ten subjects, each example slightly different
because of this hand-inking.
In 1891, the dealer Durant Ruel gave Cassatt her first solo exhibition centered on her
new color prints together with four pastels.
Sadly, contemporaries took little notice of these ground-breaking works and it was only
after her lifetime that they became fully appreciated.
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I leave you with the one work from Cassatt’s set that takes us out a domestic interior
into the wider world of Paris.
Here we see a mother, a nanny and a child seated in a new form of public transportation,
the omnibus.
The windows behind indicate that the vehicle is crossing a bridge over the Seine.
Being able to move around the city freely for the price of ticket, opened up new worlds
to women, although well-to-do ladies like the mother seen here would only have ventured
out with a companion.
The mother’s distant gaze seems to imply, however, that she longs to explore beyond
the confines of her domestic responsibilities.
I will now pass you over to my colleague Jennifer Farrell, who will show you 20th century prints
some of which also respond to new modern forms of public transportation.
Thank you Connie for this wonderful and informative production on Mary Cassatt's prints
and thank you Ann for this generous invitation to talk about our current exhibition
in the Johnson Gallery.
Today I will be focusing on British modernist prints
which have come from the collection of Leslie and Johanna Garfield.
Leslie and Johanna Garfield have created an internationally renowned collection
of modern and contemporary prints.
Among their deep and diverse holdings is an unparalleled collection
of British modernist works on paper.
Recently, through the generosity of the Garfields and supporters, The Met acquired over
700 British works, from the Garfield Collection,
an acquisition that establishes the Museum
as one of the leading institutions for works on paper by British modernists from the prewar
and interwar years.
Within this area, a particular focus has been on colored linocuts
made during the 1920's and 1930's
by artists associated with London’s Grosvenor School of Modern Art, a progressive,
non-traditional art school in which numerous students enrolled for different periods of time.
The most popular course, and the one that had the greatest impact,
was the artist Claude Flight’s seminar on linocuts,
a relief-printmaking technique related to the woodcut that used
blocks of linoleum, a synthetic material that was cheap, modern and readily available.
Linoleum was easier to carve than wood and for that reason, had often been employed
in children’s art classes and it allowed artists to realize a greater variety
of effects, such as flat planes of color, different textures, and long, sinuous lines.
Further, linocuts were something that people could make themselves, in their home,
with materials that they would have on hand.
There was no need to possess the expertise or equipment
required for intaglio printmaking.
As linoleum was strong, artists could pull a greater number of prints
without compromising quality.
The resultant prints which they printed and published themselves,
were then sold at lower prices, thus reflecting the democratic aspirations of the artists
for this new form of art.
Cyril Power’s "The Eight," which I'm showing you now,
depicts an overhead view of rowers racing along the Thames in preparation
for the annual Head of the River Race, an image the artist saw from
the Hammersmith Bridge, located near his London studio.
Power used a rather disorienting, aerial view to connote a modern vantage point.
He also cropped the image to eliminate both the bow and the stern,
as well as the coxswain so that the viewer would focus on
the simplified, repetitive, geometric forms of the rowers,
their paddles, and the power of the boat, implied by the repeated lines to indicate
it's swift movement across the water.
Power and other artists sought to depict symbols of modernity and many of their works featured
urban scenes or such things as race cars, subways, sporting events, amusement parks,
and machinery.
While "The Eight" conveys a kind of modernity, the palette and even the shape of the figures
and their boat, also has an implicit organic quality,
with the image resembling the form of a blooming plant.
This work is by Sybil Andrews.
She was an artist who collaborated quite frequently with Cyril Power.
Like Power, and other Grosvenor School artists, Andrews created numerous prints
that featured sports and athletic events.
While some of her contemporaries focused on events located in the city or adjacent suburbs,
Andrews often depicted her scenes in more rural areas, with a particular focus on equestrian activities.
In this work, Andrews reinvents this traditional genre,
applying a machinelike aesthetic, perhaps due to her work as a welder
in an airplane factory during World War I,
to convey the same sense of motion and power found in her other works.
The power, energy, and force, as well as the velocity and potential for danger
that she captures in other works with such things as motorbikes for instance,
are also present in this piece entitled "In Full Cry,"
in which she depicts riders mounted on horses in mid-jump
following hunting dogs, who are not shown, and they are likely in pursuit of a fox.
Women were key figures in the Grosvenor School
and their works were exhibited and presented in books and catalogues
along with that of their male colleagues.
The Swiss artist Lill Tschudi studied briefly at the Grosvenor School before moving to Paris,
where she worked with artists such as Fernand Léger and the Italian Futurist Gino Severini,
both of whom influenced her desire
to use repetitive geometric forms and to portray movement in her art.
The Tour de Suisse, a bicycle race begun in 1933,
required cyclists to travel the narrow and vertiginous, uh, Klausen Pass,
located in the mountains near where Tschudi lived.
By compressing the riders and emphasizing the undulating Alpine path they navigate,
she depicts the physical endurance and strength
necessary for this endeavor rather than the speed of the bicyclists.
A decorative border, which surrounds the image, mirrors many of the forms found in the interior.
It's likely a referance to the artist’s plan to print the image on fabric,
most likely that of a cushion,
and marks this print as a rare example from the edition.
Further, among the works that we will be discussing today,
this is the only linocut which is printed exclusively with black ink.
It is in many ways, uh, used to show the effects that color can have when they are layered,
but in this case, she uses a very dramatic, stark contrast of black and white
for great graphic affect.
And in this work made by Tschudi "Street Decoration,"
shows the dramatic effects of color, and what she can achieve by using only two colored blocks.
In 1935, Tschudi went to London for an exhibition of her work.
There, she encountered celebrations commemorating the Silver Jubilee of King George V.
This festive street scene is derived from her memories of those events.
The work is dominated by flags, in particular, the Union Jack,
banners and other decorations, which seem to extend beyond the image’s surface
to lead the viewer into the scene.
Tschudi also altered scale and perspective,
cropping the image, and compressing the space to create a sense of disorientation.
Yet despite the visual activity, she utilized only two linoleum blocks,
one printed in red and one in blue,
which she then layered to create the various textures and effects visible in this piece.
And as you can see, that this is a work depicting a crowded street scene in London.
So the urban space was also critically important to artists associated with the Grosvenor School.
And particularly public spaces, uh, often involving transportation, such as buses, cars, and subways.
This is an image by Power entitled "Whence and Whither," which is very different in many ways
from "The Eight" where we began in our discussion.
In this work, Power portrays a seemingly endless line of faceless commuters as they descend underground
on an escalator to catch the London subway, or Tube, at rush hour.
Power layered flat planes of bold, often contrasting colors, and he used curvilinear and concentric lines,
jutting diagonals, and sharp edges to represent positive aspects of modernity
such as the speed and efficiency of the subway,
the intermingling of classes and genders in urban centers and places such as the underground,
as well the negative, such as feelings of alienation and reification.
Power made numerous sketches of passengers for the subway
and he featured the theme, uh, frequently in his work.
Now for this work, for "Whence and Whither," for which he made numerous studies,
he included one sketch that had a caption, "THE ROBOTTOMLESS PIT”
in a reference to mechanical men that descend the stairway.
Thank you very much for joining us today. It was our pleasure to talk about
this small selection of works that we have on view
in our current exhibition, "Collectors' Collections."
If you would like more information about any of these pieces that Connie and I discussed,
as well as the other pieces that are on view,
please go to the Museum's exhibition page
where you will find a link
to "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Collectors' Collections."
There you will find a virtual exhibition guide,
as well as a URL that will provide you with more information.