DOROTHY SCHWARTZ
EVOLUTION OF A PRINTMAKER
at the
MAINE JEWISH MUSEUM
JANUARY 10th - FEBRUARY 25th, 2013 curated by Bruce Brown
The venue of this exhibition prompts me to reexamine my own work in a new light, as an artist whose creative life has been shaped by social concerns. I had been aware of this direction only fleetingly until now. Upon reflection, however, the connection is obvious. My very medium, the print, has a long history of political advocacy. It has been associated with broadsides and pamphlets as far back as the Middle Ages. Those artists who have influenced my work -- Goya, Daumier, Manet, Kollwitz, and most of all, my teacher Leonard Baskin -epitomize this legacy of the print as a vehicle for protest and propaganda. My personal history is equally laden with associations, beginning with childhood memories of World War II and a growing awareness of the enormity of the Holocaust. I realized that had my grandparents not fled the pogroms in Russia earlier in the century, I would never have been born into the snug comfort of a middle class JewishAmerican family in Brooklyn, New York. In fact, my life could have been like that of Anne Frank, over whose diary I wept when I was fourteen. As a young adult I was well aware of the civil rights protests and the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Later on I saw shattering images of cruelty and suffering around the globe. Like many Americans, I went on with my daily
Daedalus and Icarus, woodcut, 32 x 24 in, 1957
Three woodcuts, each 38 x 37 in, 2001: (left to right) B
life. But the artist in me never forgot. On the contrary, many of my works, even those I intended as abstract, reflect those times to a degree that surprises me.
While preparing for this retrospective, I notice that although I have experimented with a variety of printmaking media, I keep returning to the woodcut. This technique is so deceptively simple: a sharp tool carves channels into a plank of wood; ink is rolled onto the surface of the wood; paper is spread over the surface; pressure is applied to transfer the ink onto the paper, and the print that results is then pulled carefully away from the block. I love the woodcut for its stark directness and power to convey rich tonal contrasts through swooping lines that emerge from wells of blackness. This preference extends back to my earliest efforts as an artist. One of these, Daedalus and Icarus, a large woodcut made when I was a college student, is included in this exhibition. How amazing that I can still pull high-quality proofs from a block I carved when I was nineteen years old!
Paula Modersohn-Becker, aluminum lithograph, 25 x 20 in, 1975
I also see now ho work. Although my p they often evoke the environment where I garden, the Maine Bennington hills. Fi presence in my art, r a fascination with th of a composer in my
I dedicate this exhi dear friends, who act social justice, advanc and shared the same and David Becker. Sp for his gentle guid works of mine that h publicly. I am very who has nurtured m Thanks, too, to Ani Keith Fitzgerald, Dar of the Maine Jewish grew up in Portland, may well have been Synagogue. I am shown in this beautif
Badge; Tyranny of Numbers; River: Hiroshima
ow large a role place has played in my prints are not intended to be pictorial, e texture, aura, and fabric of a given I’ve lived, worked or visited: Darwin's coast, Lake Como, Auschwitz, the inally, music is a constant and happy reflected in choices of subject matter, heme and variation, and the presence y life – my husband Elliott Schwartz.
ibition to the memory of two ted on their deep concerns for ced my own ideas about art, e first names: David Gamper pecial thanks to Bruce Brown dance and for rediscovering have never before been shown grateful to June Fitzpatrick, my creative life over the years. i Helmick, Nancy Davidson, rcy Siverson, and the trustees h Museum. My father-in-law Maine, and he and his family n congregants of Etz Chaim honored to have my work fully restored setting.
It was also an inevitable fit that printmaking - and particularl y woodcuts - emerged as the principal vehicle for addressing her views and concerns, as earl y as her undergraduate and graduate years (1957 through 1962) working with Leonard Baskin at Smith College.Here it was that Schwartz learned above all else how to cut deep into wood blocks to achieve beautiful black printed lines for which she is known. And it was at Smith that she first experienced both moments of magic and despair - familiar to every printmaker - when each new print emerges from the press for the first time. Baskin’s legacy remains ever present, as Schwartz wrestles with the tension between abstraction, so much in vogue during her student years, and Baskin’s humanistic figurative aesthetic. Both approaches are frequentl y evident in her work. Deedee Schwartz is particularl y grateful for her association with the Peregrine Press in Portland since 1993. Working among friends and colleagues of all ages and sharing ideas in workshops offered by the Press has expanded her artistry, as she has mastered the techniques of chine collé, collagraphy, paper lithography (made without a stone or aluminum) and trace monotype. Examples of each are included in this exhibition. We, her audience, are similarl y grateful to share her broad knowledge and significant artistic accomplishment over the past half century. - Bruce Brown, Curator
- Dorothy Schwartz January 2013 Southern Sheriff, trace monotype, 20.5” x 20 in, 1965
Strange Fruit (for Billie Holiday), collagraph, typesetting furniture, 8 x 15 in, 2010
Penobscot II, woodcut, 38” x 25”in, 2001 (collection of Elizabeth and Jonathan
Throughout her life Dorothy Schwartz, known to all as Deedee, has been particularl y responsive to significant events of our time. Her fascination with social institutions as expressed in literature, philosophy and the arts, coupled with her gift for reaching out to others, provided a natural fit for her role as director of the Maine Humanities Council from 1984 to 2006.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Dorothy Schwartz: Evolution of a Printmaker, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME From So Simple a Beginning: Homage to Darwin, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Attachments, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Dorothy Schwartz Woodcuts, Zea Mays Printmaking Gallery, Northampton, MA Homage, in honor of Leonard Baskin, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2013 2009 2004 2002 2001
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Pressing On II, curated by Bruce Brown, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Dunia Moja, One World: Zanzibar & Peregine Press, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME Flat File Project, Patricia Carrega Gallery, Sandwich, NH Impressions Printmaking, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH First Impressions: Projects by Peregrine Press Artists, Saco Museum, Saco, ME Maine Print Project Exhibition, University of Maine in Presque Isle, ME Maine Printmakers, 1980-2005, Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME Peregrine Press Group Show, George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME Kate Chappell’s Envelope Project, Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta, ME Peregrine Press Group Show, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT Bowdoin College Art Museum, Becker Gallery, Brunswick, ME Poems by Bertolt Brecht, traveling exhibition of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
2012 2011 2011 2009 2008 2006 2006 2005 2003 2000 1998 1980 1980
Attachments #5, unique print with chine collé, woodcut, thread, Mexican paper, 22 x 15 in, 2004
DOROTHY SCHWARTZ
GALLERY AFFILIATION June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine www.junefitzpatrickgallery.com Smith College, A.B., M.A.T Yale-Norfolk Summer Art School University of Southern Maine, M.S. Ed. Counseling Special Studies with Leonard Baskin, Bernard Chaet, Jack Coughlin, Deborah Cornell, Catherine Kernan, Annie Silverman, Elizabeth Mayor
COLLECTIONS with the Peregrine Press: Bowdoin College Museum of Art Colby College Museum of Art Farnsworth Art Museum Portland Museum of Art University of New England New York Public Library
Dorothy Schwartz Post Office Box 451 S. Freeport, Maine 04078 www.peregrinepress.com dorothy_schwartz@@@ymail.com
Cover Image
Boots (detail)
Trace Monotype 33 x 24 inches 2012 Photograpy Jay York Brochure Design Alina Gallo
Maine Jewish Museum 267 Congress Street Portland, Maine 04101 www.mainejewishmuseum.org (207) 329-9854
I Think, From Darwin’s Notebook, paper lithograph, 36.5 x 25 in, 2009
EDUCATION