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VOL.32, NO.3
Late-life artist relishes challenge
I N S I D E …
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By Margaret Foster For most of his life, Allan Akman has dabbled in art. The 77-year-old Rockville resident spent his 33-year career as a military consultant, but on nights and weekends, he painted using watercolors and oils. When he retired in 2009, Akman had a long “bucket list” of things to do, books to read and places to visit. But he became captivated by one of the first items on the list: learning to make silkscreen prints. Silkscreen printing is a multi-stepped painting process in which the ar tist squeegees paint through prepared finemesh screens using a rubber blade, gradually producing an image by printing one layer of color at a time. Andy Warhol is perhaps the most famous screen printer, known for his pop images of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup cans. Akman’s works were displayed last June at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, in a solo exhibition called “Precision.” He recently sold a dozen prints to a corporate hospital, which plans to display them this spring. “He really made up for lost time and is super prolific,” said Gretchen Schermerhorn, Pyramid’s artistic director, in an email. “With this kind of validation,” Akman said, “I have no regrets that I haven’t gotten to other items on my list.” Akman grew up in Washington, D.C., the son of a Polish immigrant who started a local grocery chain and hardware store. He majored in mathematics at the University of Maryland and attended graduate school at Carnegie Mellon, where he received a master’s degree in business. Then he returned to the area, settling
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Timon of Athens shines at the Shakespeare Theatre; plus, U.S. military bands, and Bob Levey on the luck of supercentenarians Allan Akman discovered a new talent in retirement: making silkscreen prints. It’s now his passion. To learn the complex process, he sought help from a Maryland art gallery, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.
with his wife in Glover Park. He taught at the University of Maryland for several years before starting his own consulting company in 1976.
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