On Paper: The Gift of Ann and Don McPhail by Woodmere Art Museum

Exhibition or Catalogue Title 15 words max on 3 lines max

ON PAPER

THE GIFT OF ANN AND DON MCPHAIL

TELLING THE STORY OF

PHILADELPHIA’S ART AND ARTISTS

Funding thank you text 90 words max.

On Paper The Gift of Ann and Don McPhail

CONTENTS Foreword 2 Corridor Gallery 4 Antonelli II Gallery 57 Conversation with Ann and Don McPhail 88 Works in the Gift 109

November 16, 2013 – March 2, 2014

TELLING THE STORY OF

PHILADELPHIA’S ART AND ARTISTS

FOREWORD tenure at the Print Club. Their collection grew over time, in tandem with the WILLIAM R. VALERIO, PHD

Print Club’s changing program, and

The Patricia Van Burgh Allison

as such it records a transformation in

Director and CEO

Philadelphia printmaking. This history is described by Ann, Don, former Print Club

I became acquainted with Ann and Don

director Ofelia García, and artist Peter

McPhail during my years working on the

Paone in the conversation transcribed

staff at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

in this catalogue. We extend thanks

Ann is a senior volunteer guide who also

and appreciation to Ofelia and Peter

participates in the Department of Indian

for participating in this illuminating

and Himalayan Art. Don is a trustee.

discussion.

I was very happy to learn, on my arrival

On behalf of Woodmere’s staff,

at Woodmere three years ago, that Ann

volunteers, and trustees, I express

and Don were involved at Woodmere as

deepest gratitude to Ann and Don. We

well, both as lenders to exhibitions and

thank them and promise to care for their

as engaged members of this Museum’s

treasures faithfully in the thoughtful

community. This should have been no

spirit of their gift as we share them with

surprise, as Ann and Don’s participation

our public. Woodmere trustee Elie-Anne

in the arts of Philadelphia is as deep as

Chevrier and Peter Paone helped us with

it is broad. Don served as president of

the logistics associated with a generous

the Print Club (now the Print Center) for

gift on this scale, and I thank them

almost a decade, from 1978 to 1985. This

together with staff members Rachel

exhibition celebrates the McPhails’ gift to

McCay, Sally Larson, Emma Hitchcock,

Woodmere of several paintings and many

and Rick Ortwein for making this

works on paper—prints, photographs,

exhibition as beautiful as it is fascinating.

watercolors, and drawings—that the

Thank you all.

couple collected during and after Don’s 2

The McPhailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gift introduced Woodmere to a number of artists, including Paul M. Loughney (pictured above, Untitled (Male figure riding a bicycle), undated, by Paul M. Loughney. Gift of Ann and Donald McPhail, 2013), whose work was previously absent from the collection. 3

Corridor Gallery, Woodmere Art Museum 4

On Paper

The Gift of Ann and Don McPhail

CORRIDOR GALLERY This exhibition celebrates the remarkable gift of more than 120 works on paper from longtime Woodmere supporters Ann and Don McPhail. The highlights of the collection on view reveal a deep intellectual curiosity, a keen interest in printmaking processes, and an engagement with meaningful content. Ann attended the Barnes Foundation schools of art and horticulture and has studied Asian art for over fifty years. She was the first woman president of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia. Ann has worked with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to design and maintain their gardens in Society Hill. She also worked with the Friends of the Japanese House and Garden to restore the Japanese Garden in Fairmount Park. A senior volunteer guide at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ann is also a supporter of that museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Indian and HimalayanArt. Don was employed by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) for thirtyseven years. After retiring from ARCO, he served as general manager of the Pennsylvania Ballet and then vice president of finance and administration at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was president of the Print Club (now the Print Center) for eight years and is an emeritus trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Ann and Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gift to Woodmere is a beautiful act of generosity that demonstrates their shared passion for the cultural vitality of our city.

SAM MAITIN American, 1928-2004

Although Maitin is known for his high-

Search and Create: Jacob Wrestles until Dawn 1979 Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper

of Jacob wrestling with the angel

keyed color and biomorphic abstraction, his work is often figurative. The subject symbolizes man’s internal battle with the contradictions of life. The image of the intertwined figures floats on a field of rich color. Maitin studied printmaking at the Print Club of Philadelphia (now the Print Center) and attended monthly intaglio workshops offered there by noted English printmaker Stanley W. Hayter. A painter, printmaker, sculptor, muralist, graphic designer, political activist, and beloved teacher, Maitin headed the Visual Graphics Communication Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication from 1965 to 1972 and served on the board of Woodmere Art Museum from 1995-2004. He received a number of awards, including a 1968 Guggenheim

The real business of art to me is to play

Foundation Fellowship. He created

with form, shape and color . . . . I find that

murals and other public art for the

it is this joy of just putting color, texture,

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the

and shape together in an experimental

University of Pennsylvania, Temple

way [that] I am truly interested in.

University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, the Please Touch Museum, and

—Sam Maitin

Hahnemann University Hospital, among 7

PETER PAONE American, born 1936

Paone attended the Philadelphia Museum

Elephant/Center Ring 1977 Lithograph

of fine arts degree in art education. His

School of Art (now the University of the Arts), where he received a bachelor work has been exhibited at institutions across the United States and across the globe, and he has held senior teaching positions at both Pratt Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

ISAIAH ZAGAR American, born 1939

Zagar received his BFA in painting and graphics at the Pratt Institute in New York. His work is included in the

Dog Wedding 1987 Itaglio print with colored pencil and rubber stamp

permanent collections of numerous art institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, and has been featured in solo exhibitions throughout the Philadelphia area. His mosaic murals can be found on over 100 public walls throughout Philadelphia and around the world. Zagar has received grants from the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His life and artistic career were the subjects of a 2008 documentary, In a Dream, made by the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, Jeremiah. .

PETER PAONE American, born 1936

Peter Paone’s work often contains

Household Pet 1974 Etching

whimsical and endearing. Paone is a

surrealistic elements and odd creatures. His clowns and invented animals are major contributor to the history of printmaking in Philadelphia. When he was seventeen years old, he met Carl Zigrosser, curator of prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who became Paone’s mentor and friend and provided him with access to the museum’s extensive print collection and archives. Two years later, Paone became an assistant to master printmaker Benton Spruance, who invented a revolutionary subtractive color lithography process.

PETER PAONE American, born 1936

Clown #9 1979 Acrylic and albumen print on board (carte de visite)

T. AGUIR American

Corporate Cat II Undated Etching

CHARLES BURWELL American, born 1955

This digital print was commissioned by

Pink Ground and Two Figures 2005 Digital Print

computer technology, rather than with

the Print Center for a fundraiser. Digital prints are made through the use of a printing press or other traditional methods. Here, Burwell takes full advantage of digital capabilities, building the image with layers of patterns, colors, and forms. Burwell received his BFA in painting from Temple Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tyler School of Art in 1977 and his MFA in painting from Yale University in 1979. His work has been exhibited and collected broadly, and he is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2008.

ROBERT SENTZ American

The delicate lines create a soft, chalky

An Easter Hat 1991 Etching

an etching. The womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s introspective

texture, making this portrait appear as if it were a charcoal drawing instead of emotions are conveyed through her downcast eyes and the dark shadows that obscure her facial features. An etching is a technique in which an artist uses an etching needle to cut into a waxy, acid-resistant ground that has been applied to a metal plate. The plate is then placed in an acid bath and the acid etches into the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s incised markings. The wax ground is then wiped away and the plate is inked and then rewiped such that only the etched lines hold ink. When paper is placed on the plate and run through a printing press, the pressure forces the paper into the etched lines and it picks up the ink. Robert Sentz graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1992. He has had exhibitions of his work at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia. He now lives and works in New Hampshire.

ELIZABETH OSBORNE American, born 1936

Woodmere Director William Valerio commented on the sensuous beauty of Osborneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watercolor,

Untitled (Figure)

Liz has a unique way with watercolors.

1988 Watercolor on paper

One of our mutual friends, the late Murray Dessner, used to say that Lizâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watercolors seemed to pour effortlessly onto the page, creating magical illusions of space, color, and volume. Osborne was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) from 1954-58 where she studied with Walter Stuempfig, Hobson Pittman, and Franklin Watkins. She has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and has received numerous awards, including the Percy M. Owens Memorial Award, a MacDowell Colony Grant, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

SUSAN MOORE American, born 1953

One constant in my work has been the

Almetraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Daughter 2001 Gouache, ink, graphite, and casein on paper

assertion of individuality in relation to the

exploration of the unique tensions that the body reveals about the self and the quietness of anonymity. Although they often exist as somewhat oppositional or even disparate elements, their intersection can be revealing. -Susan Moore Born in Coco Solo, Panama, Moore lives and works in Philadelphia. She has received numerous grants, including the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund Fellowship, four Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Woodmere Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the New York Public Library. She is represented by the Locks Gallery in Philadelphia.

EILEEN GOODMAN American, born 1937

Eileen Goodman often paints still lifes

Still Life with Blue Glass 1987 Watercolor on paper

virtuosity with watercolor and her unique

with flowers, fruit, and decorative tablecloths. She is revered for her ability to achieve intense color, nuanced tonal ranges, and complex textures. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Goodman attended the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), where she studied illustration with Jacob Landau and painting with Morris Berd and Larry Day.

FRED WESSEL American, born 1946

Fred Wessel created this offset

Aquarium (Renaissance) c. 1984 Offset lithograph

narrative art of Fra Angelico, Duccio, and

lithograph while on a visit to Italy, where he was profoundly inspired by the Simone Martini. The aquarium scene is a memento mori: the beautifully rendered fish swims above a skull, reminding us that death is always present, even in the midst of life. Wessel earned a BFA from Syracuse University in 1968 and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1976. He was a professor of printmaking at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford from 1976 to 2011. Wesselâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings have been included in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and his work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Smith College Museum of Art; and the University of Glasgow.

HELEN SIEGL American, born Austria, 19242009

Helen Siegl experimented with a variety of printmaking techniques—woodblock, linoleum block, etching, and even plaster block—within the same work of art.

Crow’s Nest Undated Color woodcut

Born in Vienna, Siegl studied art at the Akademie für angewandte Kunst. She moved to Montreal in 1952, and shortly thereafter moved with her husband, Theodor, to Philadelphia, where she was active in the Print Club (now the Print Center). She illustrated numerous children’s books including Earrings for Celia (1963), Aesop’s Fables (1964), and The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales (1990).

DAN MILLER American, born 1928

shoulder, it’s like slapping a rock. He

Wasp 2008 Color woodcut

a single-edge razor blade. He’s got a

has great strength in his hands. And he cuts his blocks, not with a tool, but with shoebox next to his table full of singleedge razor blades. He must have a leather finger after all these years. They’re all cut in a V-shape: one slice this way, one slice that way, then snap it out. You can see it, if you get up close, which is amazing because a single gauge can’t do that. He cuts very small pieces one at a time rather than making one long swing. And that’s how he gets

In discussing Dan Miller’s technical

all this fabulous detail, like the wings of

virtuosity, artist and friend Peter Paone

the wasp here.

remarked:

Dan Miller received a bachelor’s degree

I heard of Dan when I established the

from Lafayette College in 1951 and a

print department at the Pennsylvania

master of fine arts degree in painting

Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). He

from the University of Pennsylvania in

was teaching painting at PAFA at the

1958. He also studied at the Pennsylvania

time because they didn’t have a print

Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Since

department. In 1980, I walked in on his

returning to PAFA as a faculty member in

painting class and asked if he wanted

1964, he has served as an instructor in art

to teach printmaking, particularly

history, painting, and printmaking. He has

woodblock, and he said yes. He’s been

also held the positions of dean of faculty,

teaching it there ever since. He not only

acting dean of the school, chairman of

carves his own blocks, he prints them

the painting department, and chair of the

too. He does it all himself. He prints these

MFA program.

editions. If you ever slap him on the 33

CHRISTINE MCGINNIS American, born 1937

Christine McGinnis is known for her

Dormouse 1968 Etching

David Lynch (born 1946) printed this

images of animals such as bears, hawks, mice, and owls. Filmmaker and artist etching in 1968 for McGinnis as well as numerous engravings of animal subjects. She and husband Rodger LaPelle had first met Lynch in 1965, when he moved to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). McGinnis also attended PAFA, where she received the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship. She and her husband have operated the Rodger LaPelle Gallery in Philadelphia since 1980. .

EDWARD O’BRIEN American, born 1950

This small but highly detailed etching

The Milliner’s Evil Secret 1972 Etching

animal opens its mouth as if to bite its

depicts an elk that appears to be threatened by rapidly growing vines. The way through the encroaching vegetation. Edward O’Brien obtained his BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA, now the University of the Arts) and his MFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. He made this etching while a student at PCA for a class taught by Jerome Kaplan, a professor of printmaking. With Kaplan’s encouragement, O’Brien made frequent trips to Wyncote, Pennsylvania, to visit the renowned collection of prints amassed by Lessing Rosenwald. O’Brien was particularly attracted to the iconic natural subjects, intimate scale, and fine detail found in work by early northern European engravers. He is an associate professor of fine arts at Kutztown University.

RAY K. METZKER American, born 1931

Ray K. Metzker is recognized as a master

Untitled (Birches) c. 1985-96 Gelatin silver print

urban subjects in cities such as Chicago

of American photography. In the 1950s and 1960s, he made photographs of and Philadelphia. In 1970, while serving as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico, he began to photograph the desert landscape. Landscapes were the primary focus of his work from the mid1980s until the mid-1990s. Born in Milwaukee, Metzker attended graduate school at Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Institute of Design. He was a professor of photography at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) from 1962 to 1980. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two National Endowment for the Arts grants and two Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships. Exhibitions of his work have been held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

EDNA ANDRADE American, 1917-2008

Edna Andrade is best known for her

Cliff and Pebbles 1996 Graphite on paper

and 1950s, she made precisely detailed

geometric abstraction, but she began her career as a realist painter. In the 1940s paintings, often of the rocky coast of Maine. She returned to this subject matter and style in the mid-1990s. Here, she shows off her ability to sculpt forms in line and create atmosphere with evocative light and shadow. Andrade graduated in 1937 from the joint fine arts program of the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). She was a beloved and influential instructor at the University of the Arts from 1958 to 1982. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Bryn Mawr College, PAFA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Yale University Art Gallery. She received numerous awards and fellowships, including the College Art Associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award and the Philadelphia Mayorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arts and Culture Award for Visual Arts.

ENID MARK American, 1932-2008

Enid Mark obtained a bachelor of arts

Rose 2003 Offset lithograph

typography at West Chester University.

degree from Smith College and pursued graduate studies in printmaking and In 1986, Mark founded ELM Press, which publishes finely crafted limitededition publications that feature handlithography, letterpress printing, and archival hand-binding. ELM Pressâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s publications have been acquired by more than ninety public collections in the United States, Canada, and England. In 2006 Mark was the recipient of a Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in recognition for her work in book arts. Among her other honors are a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Leeway Foundation Award for Achievement. Books and prints by Mark can be found in collections of institutions across the United States including the Jewish Museum in New York, La Salle University Art Museum, McCabe Library at Swarthmore College, and Firestone Library at Princeton University, among many others.

DIANE BURKO American, born 1945

Diane Burko often uses her photographs

Rochers a Belle Isle #5 1992 Monotype on handmade paper

residency sponsored by the Lila Acheson

as source material for her depictions of nature. In 1989, during a six-month artist Wallace Foundation, she spent time on Belle Isle, off France’s Brittany Coast, and made a number of oil studies. Cool colors and soft focus belie the crags and jagged forms of these rocks as they punctuate the watery environment. Born in Brooklyn, Burko graduated from Skidmore College in 1966 with bachelor’s degrees in art history and painting. She received her MFA in 1969 from the Graduate School of Fine Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, then became a professor of fine arts at the Community College of Philadelphia, where she taught until 2000. In 2011 she was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art.

ELIZABETH OSBORNE American, born 1936

Manchester Islands II features fluid,

Manchester Islands II 1978 Watercolor on paper

to form and color gives the landscape

chromatic bands that pulse with energy and light. Elizabeth Osborneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach a lively sensation, as though the waves could flow beyond the frame. She integrates abstraction and realism, using large swaths of color to suggest natural shapes.

STUART EGNAL American, 1940-1966

Although Stuart Egnal died tragically

Untitled (RFL) c. 1965 Etching

and cardboard and wood sculptures. He

young, he produced a large body of work that included etchings, acrylic paintings, was heavily influenced by music, namely jazz with which he felt his working style shared certain affinities. He often worked thematically, developing variations on a particular motif, a tendency he felt was echoed in jazz music. Egnal studied at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art (now the University of the Arts), the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a master of fine arts degree. His works are in the collections of the Print Club (now the Print Center), the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Friendsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Central School, as well as in private collections.

PRAVOSLAV SOVAK Czech, born 1926

Ann and Don McPhail obtained this

Evening Walk 1974 Hand-colored etching

was shown in Philadelphia at the Print

print by the renowned Czechoslovakian artist Pravoslav Sovak when his work Club (now the Print Center) in 1978. He currently lives and works in Switzerland. Evening Walk demonstrates Sovakâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to create monumental plays of scale in small works of art. Here, a small lone figure walks into the expanse of a seemingly vast landscape. Sovak has enjoyed an international career, and has had solo exhibitions of his work at the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, and the Albertina in Vienna.

BRUCE STROMBERG American, 1944-1999

This photograph and the one on the

Alone 1970 Color coupler print

addressed in the black-and-white

following page embody the emotionally resonant themes that Bruce Stromberg photographs for which he was well known. In both prints, solitary figures are alienated from others. In Alone, a man stands against a railing or fence surrounded by an expansive empty space. In Untitled, a young child to the left of the composition approaches a railcar with an elderly woman sitting inside. The mood in both photographs is serious and melancholic. Stromberg was a nationally known and award-winning photographer. His interest in photography began when he enrolled in the Army after graduating from high school in 1962. In the 1970s and 1980s he was represented by New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Witkin Gallery. He and his wife, Sharon Gunther, owned Stromberg Gunther Photography at 7th and Ranstead Streets in Philadelphia until Strombergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death in 1999. His work has been exhibited globally.

BRUCE STROMBERG American, 1944â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1999

Untitled Undated Color coupler print

Antonelli II Gallery, Woodmere Art Museum 56

ANTONELLI II GALLERY Of the fifty-six artists represented in Ann and Don McPhail’s gift to Woodmere, many of them are figures in the arts of Philadelphia whose work was previously absent from our collection. We are thrilled, for example, to acquire our first fiber work by Ed Bing Lee (born 1933) and our first “newspaper blanket” by conceptual artist Phillips Simkin (born 1944). Woodmere’s mission is to offer experiences by telling stories of Philadelphia’s artists, and we are always glad to open new chapters of growth and exploration. It is equally exciting that several of the artists represented in the gift, including Edna Andrade (1917-2008), Eileen Goodman (born 1937), Elizabeth Osborne (born 1936), and Peter Paone (born 1936), will be familiar to our visitors, as Woodmere is already committed to collecting their work in depth. We are grateful that this acquisition allows us to more deeply explore their accomplishments. The richeness of the McPhails’ collection comes from their eye for quality and sophistication, their consistent thoughtfulness, and their many friendships in the arts. Woodmere is honored to be entrusted with their treasures, and we express our deepest thanks.

BENTON MURDOCH SPRUANCE American, 1904-1967

Dick in 1965. He had long been inspired

Triumph of the Whale (from the series “Moby Dick”) 1967 Lithograph

of English at Princeton University, who

by literary sources, but in this case he set out to create a dialogue with his friend, Lawrance Roger Thompson, a professor wrote Melville’s Quarrel with God (1952), a meditation on the great American epic as a parable that was relevant to humanity’s most pressing spiritual concerns in the post–World War II era. Spruance is celebrated as one of the most important printmakers and teachers of lithography in the twentieth century. In lithography, a wax-like crayon (or liquid tusche) is used to draw upon a flat, polished limestone slab or specially-

Benton Spruance has always worked

finished metal sheet. Acid is then used

in that tradition of graphic art which

to etch away the negative space around

regards the print as meaningful

the artist’s markings (the acid does not

communication…Ben has stuck to his

adhere to any surface covered in wax).

high purpose without compromise. He

The image is then printed in reverse in

has worked long and faithfully in the

an oil-based ink that adheres to those

vineyards of art….a lifelong love affair with

surfaces that have not been treated

the lithographic stone.

with the acid. Spruance is credited with inventing the “subtractive process”

- Carl Zigrosser, curator of prints from

of color lithography in which he used

1941 to 1963, Philadelphia Museum of Art

that same stone numerous times in the production of a single print, wiping away

Benton Spruance began his series of

one color of ink and adding other colors

prints based on Herman Melville’s Moby

to build his images in layers. 59

HESTER STINNETT American, born 1956

Hester Stinnettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mysterious Orchard

Orchard 1983 Etching

expanse of ground. Ambiguous spatial

includes barren tree branches and a ladder that seems to float off an open relationships suggest a reading of the ladder as a symbol or metaphor. Stinnett received a BFA from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford and an MFA from Temple Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tyler School of Art, where she is now vice dean and director of graduate programs and professor of printmaking. She has also taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), and Bryn Mawr College. With coauthor Lois M. Johnson, she wrote Water-Based Inks: A Screenprinting Manual for Studio and Classroom, published by the University of the Arts Press. She was an artist in residence at the Fabric Workshop in 2003, and has presented printmaking workshops at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. In 2004 she was awarded a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. 61

JOHN E. DOWELL American, born 1941

John E. Dowell seeks to articulate his

Saskia’s Dream 1981 Lithograph

music, visual art, and dance have an

belief in the unifying structure of human expression through his art. For him, underlying structure that comprises the presentation, contemplation, and resolution of ideas. Saskia’s Dream and other works from this period blend music and visual art. A talented pianist, Dowell projected these prints onto a screen and, accompanied by a group of musicians, improvised music inspired by the art. Dowell received his BFA in printmaking from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and his MFA in printmaking from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a professor emeritus of printmaking at Tyler School of Art. His photographs and printed work have been shown nationally and internationally.

PHILLIPS SIMKIN American, 1944-2012

This work is from a larger project by

The Cable Knitted News 1984 Wool yarn

which knitted the news during the 1984

Phillips Simkin. The artist founded a manufacturer called Cable Knitted News, Democratic Convention and fashioned the knitted news into one-of-a-kind wearable garments like shirts and skirts. Simkin obtained his BFA from Temple Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tyler School of Art and his MFA from Cornell University. He has enacted site-specific commissioned installations across the country at venues in San Francisco, Saint Louis, Albany, Philadelphia, Boston, and Maryland.

LOIS M. JOHNSON American, born 1942

In Untitled (Panic Button), a figure

Panic Button (diptych) Undated Collage

sleeves. Adorned with cowboy boots

appears to be consumed by an enormous coat with large sock-like and butterflies, the jacket also contains a panic button that reads “I NEED AN ORDER.” This work and Lois M. Johnson’s larger body of prints explore the interaction of humans with their surroundings, often focusing on the ways in which they seek out safe enclosures that protect them from the difficulties of modern life. In 1964 Johnson received a bachelor of science degree in fine arts and education from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, and in 1966 she obtained a master of fine arts degree in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She received a Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant for experimentation in offset lithography and a Percent for Art commission from the City of Philadelphia, for which she created a limited-edition print for City Council Chambers in City Hall.

EUGENE FELDMAN American, 1921-1975

process used in almost all commercial

Nureyev No. II 1968 Offset lithograph

image is transferred from a lithographic

printing— expanded the possibilities for printmaking. On an offset press, the plate to a cylindrical blanket and then onto paper. Because of this double action, images do not appear reversed. By manipulating visual images using the print technology available at the time, Feldman pushed the boundaries between offset lithography, collage,

Artist Peter Paone discusses his

and photography. In Nureyev No. II, the

interaction with Eugene Feldman:

superimposition of shapes over the figure’s face was created by Feldman’s

I worked with him as a student at PCA.

layering of photographs during the

He taught out of his commercial print

printing process.

shop on Ludlow Street. It was quite extensive, with huge offset presses. He

Feldman attended the Philadelphia

invited a number of us to come in and

Museum School of Industrial Art

make offset prints. In the mid-1950s

(now the University of the Arts). He

that was very experimental. He would

was the founder of Falcon Press in

take just a little bit of, let’s say, a thumb,

Philadelphia and professor of fine

and he would blow it up and it became

arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

the most incredible abstract thing....He

He was dedicated to teaching and

was way ahead of his time. And then his

allowed students to experiment with

most popular work, which I’ve always

his commercial printing press. He

suspected Andy Warhol saw, was a series

shaped and influenced printmaking in

of animal heads at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Philadelphia by teaching print techniques and skills to countless young artists. He

Feldman’s innovative and influential use

was active in Philadelphia from the early

of offset lithography—the printmaking

1950s until his death in 1975. 69

LEONARD BASKIN American, 1922-2000

In the early 1950s, Leonard Baskin taught

Gustave Courbet Undated Wood engraving

strength. This print demonstrates his

himself the art of wood engraving, which requires considerable skill and physical extraordinary finesse. The subject is an artist who Baskin greatly admired, French painter Gustave Courbet (1819– 1877). Baskin suggests the intensity of Courbet’s gaze on the world through the seeming depth and expressivity of his eyes. Baskin was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He studied art at Yale University, where he founded Gehenna Press. Until Baskin’s death in 2000, the Gehenna Press operated as the fine-art book press with the highest standards of quality. Baskin worked as a book-artist, illustrator, printmaker, sculptor, and teacher and often collaborated with poet Ted Hughes. He received numerous important public commissions, including a thirty footlong bas-relief for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

PETER PAONE American, born 1936

Peter Paone admires Henri de Toulouse-

Lautrec 1985 Etching

three different print images of him as a

Lautrec (French, 1874–1901) as an artist and draftsman. Paone explains, “I made kind of homage to the great man.” Paone has been enthusiastically involved in the Philadelphia arts community as an artist, collector, and teacher for over five decades. In 1980, he established the printmaking department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he taught from 1978 to 2009, and served as the department’s first chair. He was also the vice president of the Print Club (now the Print Center) for six years.

DAN MILLER American, born 1928

Virginia (Woolf) 1998 Color woodblock

DAN MILLER American, born 1928

Berenice (Abbott) 1998 Color woodblock

PETER PAONE American, born 1936

About this drawing Peter Paone

Woman Smoking 1981 Charcoal on paper

on the street often. I did it in the early

remarked, “It is not a portrait of anyone. It is an invented head, but I have seen her 1980s, when there was a public outcry against smoking in public places. It’s still one of my favorite drawings.”

JOSEPH AMAROTICO American, 1931-1985

Joseph Amarotico produced architectural

Untitled 1977 Watercolor on paper

overlapping geometric shapes. In this

fantasies and “dream castles,” depicting assemblages of interlocking and elegant watercolor, an imagined, threedimensional structure floats in an ambiguous, window-like opening into space. Born in New York, Amarotico studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) with Franklin Watkins and Walter Stuempfig. From 1963 until his death, he worked at PAFA as an instructor and as a painting conservator, restoring such works as Benjamin West’s (1738-1820) Death on the Pale Horse (1817) and Christ Rejected (1814).

EILEEN GOODMAN American, born 1937

Peonies 1991 Watercolor on Arches paper

ELIZABETH OSBORNE American, born 1936

The saturated hues that are characteristic

Still Life with Flowers 1977 Lithograph

in from the window at left, bathing

of Elizabeth Osborneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings are present in her prints as well. Light pours the arrangement of objects in a soft, painterly atmosphere.

ED BING LEE American, born 1933

Ed Bing Lee created this work through

Ode to Klimt 1996 Yarn on fabric

knots of multicolored embroidery floss

a technique known as knotting. The image is made through a series of over a free-hanging linen warp. Lee appropriated the likeness of biblical heroine Judith from a well-known painting by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). Lee received a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State College and a master’s degree in painting and graphics from Brooklyn College. Later, he became the head of the design department at Craftex Mills near Philadelphia. He has also held teaching positions at the University of the Arts and Moore College of Art and Design, where he taught offloom techniques and learned knotting. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2007. Lee’s work is in numerous private collections and is regularly shown throughout the United States as well as at Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia.

CONVERSATION WITH ANN AND DONALD MCPHAIL On October 18, 2013, Ann and Donald

Osborne, Susan Moore, and Sam Maitin,

McPhail sat down with Ofelia García,

three artists whose work is central to

former director of the Print Club of

Woodmere’s holdings.

Philadelphia (now the Print Center);

DONALD MCPHAIL: We purchased Liz’s

artist Peter Paone; and William Valerio,

nude from Marian Locks. This was when

the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director

her gallery was on Walnut Street, so

of Woodmere Art Museum, to talk about

that was quite a few years ago. Marian

their longtime affiliation with the Print

had organized an exhibition of Liz’s

Club of Philadelphia and On Paper,

watercolors. I remember that we were

Woodmere’s exhibition celebrating their

drawn to the nude and we told Marian

recent gift to the Museum of more than

that we had to have it. She asked, of

120 works on paper.

course, if we would leave it at the gallery for the duration of the show. And so we agreed to that. After the show I went to see Marian and pick it up. We went

WILLIAM VALERIO: Ann and Don, your

in the back room looking for it, and we

gift to Woodmere is extraordinary in

wandered around and couldn’t find it.

the way that it expands our collection

Around the second or third trip through, I

of works on paper. Many of the artists

spotted it sitting on the floor, on its side.

represented in it have long been on

Marian and I had a terrific laugh together;

Woodmere’s wish list. Others are

we had each looked right at it, but we

already part of the Woodmere family,

had both thought it was a landscape

so to speak—that is, they are already

[laughs].

represented in the collection—but we are committed to collecting their work in

WV: I could see that! Liz has a unique

greater depth. So, for example, we might

way with watercolors. One of our mutual

open our discussion of the exhibition

friends, the late Murray Dessner, used

with a trio of nudes by Elizabeth

to say that Liz’s watercolors seemed to 88

pour effortlessly onto the page, creating

them quite well. That includes you, Peter,

magical illusions of space, color, and

as well as Lois Johnson, Edna Andrade,

volume. The juxtaposition with Susan

and others.

Moore’s nude is particularly wonderful.

PP: We have to talk about the Print

DM: It’s interesting that these first two

Club. Don, I’ve known you for a hundred

both came from the Locks Gallery—one

years and I’ve known your interest in

on Walnut Street and one on Washington

many artistic media. I’m curious why you

Square.

focused on works on paper, which is the bulk of your collection.

ANN MCPHAIL: Susan’s nude is extraordinarily sensuous, like Liz’s, but in

DM: It’s because I got involved with the

a different way. The flatness of the gritty

Print Club, in the 1970s. I was asked by

background plays off of the figure.

John Kremer III, who was the president at the time, if I would help them with

PETER PAONE: It also looks like an old

budgeting for a program called “Prints

glass negative with the surface peeling

in Progress,” which taught printmaking

off of it.

in schools. I was a business guy,

WV: Sam Maitin is another Philadelphia

accustomed to working with numbers

artist whose figurative work is incredibly

and budgets, and that’s how I got

sensuous, but again his vocabulary of

involved. Through that experience, I

lines and flat shapes is a world apart.

got quite interested in prints. I had not

Sam was one of the great free spirits, and

been an art connoisseur up to that point

he was on the board here at Woodmere.

[laughs]. Ann had been working with me

Ann and Don, were you friendly with

for years to get a little culture. That’s how

him?

we got into it.

DM: Yes, we were. It goes back to the

WV: But then your involvement with the

Print Club. We got to meet Sam and

Print Club was very deep.

many of the other artists represented in

AM: You were president of the board for

our collection there, and we got to know

ten years, right? 89

DM: Right. I’m the lucky man who

whose family lived nearby in Essex,

engaged Ofelia as director.

Massachusetts. She moved to Rockport,

OFELIA GARCÍA: I was there for eight years. Don hired me at the end of 1977. I had made prints and taught people how to make prints, but I didn’t know all the moving parts of the organization that brought the different perspectives on prints together. That was the interesting part: the collectors, curators, conservators, and dealers—everybody with their own take on these objects.

which was then the hotbed of American Impressionism. She invited me to spend weekends in Rockport, especially when there were openings at the galleries and studios. In addition, my mother shopped in Salem on Saturday and would leave me at the Peabody Maritime Museum [now the Peabody Essex Museum] with a guard and pick me up after she finished her errands.

The Print Club was the place where they

DM: I want to say too that I don’t look on

talked to each other or engaged with

our collection as being predominantly

each other. Ann, were you intentionally

works on paper. It certainly is in terms of

encouraging Don to be involved in prints,

numbers of pieces, but Ann put together

or did you, as Don put it, just want him to

a significant collection of Asian textiles

“get some culture?”

and jewelry, and we have a fair number of

AM: I was very interested in having him

Chinese antiquities. It’s pretty eclectic.

look at something else besides columns

WV: So we’re talking about one piece

of figures and running a very large group

of a broader collection that represents

of people in a very large organization.

the different passions of your lives

He was on the go all the time and I felt

together and the different aspects of

that moving sideways into something

your engagement with the world. That’s a

might interest him—I didn’t realize that

beautiful thing.

it would become his passion. And it did become his passion. I had been involved in art since I was seven years old. There was a family friend, Anne Nickerson,

DM: I think the print collection is as large as it is because we’ve been doing it longer. I suspect that if I had been asked to help out at the Mütter Museum, we

might have been collecting body parts

that’s a terrific surprise to me and it’s by

[laughs].

an artist who’s close to my heart: Stuart Egnal. Sylvia Egnal, his mother, was one

PP: Well, you were at the right place at

of my neighbors in West Philadelphia. Do

the right time.

you know her?

WV: I’m glad you didn’t collect body

DM: Yes, we know her—she was on the

parts [laughs]!

board of the Print Club. We know Sylvia,

OG: There is ease of storage with works

but never met Stuart. He died tragically

on paper that you don’t have with other

young.

art. It’s insidious in a sense because you

PP: He died in his twenties—a very nice

can just put it in a drawer and the drawer

guy, and talented. Here again it was

holds a lot and before you know it you’ve

the Print Club that brought everyone

got a lot of things. The selection, this

together. If you were an artist connected

gift, is a portion of your print interests,

to the Print Club, you met everybody

because you also have many European

else. When you walked in, you knew who

prints and Japanese prints.

they were. If they were in a coffee shop,

WV: And works by American artists with

you wouldn’t know who they were. Stuart

no connection to Philadelphia.

was very active at the Print Club because he was also a printmaker.

AM: Yes, but a strong center of the collection on paper is the work of

OG: When I first went to work at the Print

Philadelphia’s artists. That’s one of the

Club—this would have been after Stuart’s

most exciting things about it, as Don

death—Sylvia was on the board there.

pointed out. We came to be friends with

She was around and contributed his work

many of the artists and the interweaving

to certain shows. So that was the link. I

of life with art made it very interesting

saw her again recently—she is unfailingly

for Don.

gracious and has stayed as active as she can.

WV: Why don’t we talk about some of DM: The Print Club used to be quite

the artists? There’s a little etching here 91

a social organization. Bertha von

doors. Some were good friends and they

Moschzisker was the original director.

summered together, and to an extent, when they left town—and this is en

OG: She wasn’t quite the original director.

masse—there was no one in town except

She said to us more than once that she

the working stiffs. That was interesting.

and the Print Club had been born in the

Of course, times have changed, and it

same year. Her father, who was the chief

began to stop being a social thing when

justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme

they got themselves an immigrant as

Court for a number of years, had been

director: me [laughs]! I think the base

very active in print collecting. It was

was broader than you could tell.

as Don says—there was a strong social connection. A lot of people on the board

DM: Also, it had many transitions. They

were friends.

had a garden there, and Bertha would serve tea every Friday afternoon at 4:00.

DM: Our friend Mary Mather has a theory

There would be women from Chestnut

that everyone who is active on the major

Hill and the Main Line in white gloves

boards in Philadelphia started at the Print

and hats who would serve tea. Then that

Club.

garden was enclosed and it became a

OG: I was told, I think by Bertha, that

print shop. They had lithograph presses

I should look at it as a training board.

in there.

People got started there and then would

PP: They had my lithograph press, and

go to serve on other boards. I would

an etching press, and it was open to all

say to people, “While you’re with us, we

the printmakers who didn’t have presses.

need you to do things for us, then when

And then under another director and at

you move on, you move on” [laughs].

another time, it was all removed and now

The social side was strong—several

it’s the shop. It was constantly evolving.

board members would go to Europe

It had great support from people like Carl

together every now and then. Or, to my

Zigrosser and Lessing Rosenwald. Benton

amazement, they’d go to Maine in the

Spruance was major—he was an artist

summer together and assume that when

and he taught and brought his prominent

they departed the Print Club closed its 92

print students to the exhibitions and

landscape. Suddenly prints were the real

encouraged that their work be shown. He

deal and there were print publishers. The

was responsible, along with Zigrosser, for

landscape had changed. The organization

a 1958 exhibition that included my work

was able to move on to other things.

and Sidney Goodman’s (Exhibition of

WV: How did the Print Club capitalize

Prints by Sidney Goodman, Peter Paone,

on that transformation in the nature of

Helen Shulik). It was a very creative, very

printmaking?

active place that focused on artists. Don, you were president through a number of

OG: We were transformed. It was no

directors. Was that a difficult journey?

longer necessary to do the promotional things to sell prints. Prints were now

OG: Shall I step out [laughs]?

accepted as legitimate and important,

DM: By and large they were easy to work

so we had more freedom to promote the

with.

artists and their work. We shifted our expenses, for example, from parties to

OG: Here’s the thing. The flexibility of

catalogues. Less wine for the locals—let

the organization has been immense.

the commercial galleries do that. We

And when it’s matched by the flexibility

documented the works of the artists.

of the people who are leading it, it

It was a moment of great transition.

really can work. But the print world

The people who cared so much about

was changing significantly. I remember

the Print Club were able to roll with

Lessing Rosenwald saying something

it. The issue was: what service do we

to the effect that the place was needed

provide next in the context of prints?

because early on prints were too cheap

Don, we’ve never talked about this. You

to be worth a dealer’s wall space. Artists

probably have a completely different

would stop making prints if they couldn’t

interpretation.

show them. And who would want to

DM: No, no. You’re right on.

show them, these little things that didn’t sell for much money? And so certainly

WV: Being chairman of the board of an

by the 1960s, after the print revolution

organization is hard work.

had taken place, that was not the 93

OG: This one in particular was hands on. I

to me [laughs] and say, Donald, what do

guess they all are hard work.

you think about this particular print? This has happened endlessly. Also, we know

WV: Peter mentioned Benton Spruance.

enough about prints that we’re looking

Did you know him, Don?

for confident images and quality in

DM: Yes, again through the Print Club.

interesting handling and thinking about

I don’t recall the exact circumstances

the various methods of the medium,

when we met. He was a pleasant,

just like anyone else who’s serious about

gentlemanly kind of person. We also

collecting prints. I think that’s how we

knew his wife, Winifred, through another

always were. But it starts with us going

organization, the Society of Architectural

into a room and seeing what hits us or

Historians.

doesn’t.

WV: Spruance’s early work is most

WV: I remember, actually, at one of the

popular, but I’m enamored of his work

Philagrafika parties at the University

from beginning to end and I’m glad that

of the Arts, there were prints for sale. I

the print by Spruance you have is from

walked up to you to say hello, and you

his Moby Dick series (1965–68), which

were in deep discussion in front of a

is part of the later phase of his career.

print. Ann, you were saying to Don, “We

Why did you choose that print? And

have to have that print by Enid Mark.”

more generally, how do you decide which

And here it is, that very print—it’s a real

prints to bring into your collection?

beauty. On the left there’s a photographlike rendering of a great white petal and

AM: We’ll go to an opening, walk in the

on the right, a white leafy, sketchy form

room, and then start looking around. If

etched against the black. You bought it

the technique is extraordinary, I might

there at the party, and I agree that it’s a

have a look. If it’s just something that

great print.

visually interacts with me, I’ll spend time with it. And if it’s really something that I’d

AM: We were very fond of Enid Mark, and

like to hang on a wall in the house, I’ll go

certainly knew her, and had collected

to my moneybags who’s standing next

other works of hers that we’re giving to 94

Woodmere. This particular print, once

association. That may be part of what

you see it in the flesh, grabs you and

makes it an image that you don’t forget.

doesn’t let go.

PP: It’s beautifully composed as well, with

WV: I’m very happy that we’re starting

that huge white image on one side and

to have a critical mass of her work so we

the dark image on the other. It wouldn’t

can represent her story as an artist.

have been the same if she centralized the large image of the petal.

AM: Her ideas are quite deep.

WV: We’re planning to hang the

WV: What was she like as a person?

Enid Mark print near your beautiful

DM: Oh, modest, friendly, very amiable.

photograph by Ray Metzker, this wooded

Modest meaning that she was not

scene, and Eileen Goodman’s gigantic

flamboyant by any stretch of the

watercolor of yellow peonies.

imagination.

AM: Talk about handling a watercolor!

AM: I remember that she often worked

Eileen’s enormous flowers are just

small. She began to get into some books.

fabulous—some of the great works of art

She was a graduate of Smith College,

of Philadelphia.

and they have a number of things of

WV: I don’t know how, but Eileen gets

hers at their museum. She was a very

a unique dramatic intensity out of her

deep thinker—the way she talked about

watercolors. We can see it here in the

art—and she really analyzed particular

deep pools of blues and greens.

subjects in her work.

AM: Watercolor, to my way of thinking,

DM: I never noticed it before, but looking

is such a difficult medium. Eileen has an

at that picture it could very well be not a

enormous capacity for being absolutely

flower but a figure.

elegant with it. We saw an early one of hers at Locks Gallery—the first of

AM: A woman’s back?

her works that I ever saw—and I said WV: The sensuality of natural forms

to Marian, I’m going to take that. It was

stretches into many domains of 95

red poppies. And Marian told me that

man-made fence will continue on. I knew

someone had come in and bought it that

Eileen in school. All of her work was

afternoon. I was just bowled over. That

very narrative. She was an illustrator. She

was the first time, I think, that Eileen

came out of the illustration department

showed. You have to remember that

under Albert Gold and Henry C. Pitz. For

Marian ran one of the very first galleries

her to bring that to these other forms

downtown. We all went to her openings.

that don’t deal with the human element

Everybody who was anybody in the art

is quite astonishing. She gets that mood.

world would show up there eventually.

WV: She does—there’s a real mood. I

She had a great way with art and

wanted to talk about John Dowell, who is

choosing exhibitions, and she was a great

very well represented in your collection.

lady.

DM: John is a musician as well as a visual

WV: Peter, in other contexts you’ve

artist. This series of prints represent his

talked about Eileen as a great storyteller.

belief in the shared underlying structure

One of things I love about this particular

of art that transcends and unifies visual

image is that the flowers are coming

art, music, dance, and all other art forms.

through an ornate, wrought iron fence.

He had a small combo, a small musical

This is an elegant garden environment.

group. They would either project his print

But the flowers, to my eye, are in decline.

on the wall or put it up on an easel and

Still life is often a memento mori, and

the combo would improvise. When you

here we see that even in the most

listened to it, it reflected what he had on

beautiful places, living things come and

the paper.

go. The large scale of the flowers makes them seem palpable, less plant-like and

AM: It’s a bit of a John Cage approach.

more animal-like.

He did tapes. And they’d put up a series of four on the walls and play the tapes to

PP: The fence is based on natural forms—

the various works.

it was designed to honor nature, all of those twists and turns imitate vines and

OG: One of Ann and Don’s gifts to

stems. But the flower declines and the

Woodmere is a set of prints known as the 96

Sun Dream, lithograph, 1980, by John E. Dowell

“Philadelphia portfolio” that we produced

It had a wonderful red background and

at the Print Club in collaboration with

touches of other hand-colored elements.

the administration of Mayor Bill Green.

The Print Club sold half of the edition and

The idea was this: instead of giving the

the City purchased the other half. Think

traditional Bailey, Banks, and Biddle

about it: a ceramic or porcelain bowl

“Philadelphia bowl” to visiting dignitaries

is not the most practical thing to give

and distinguished individuals, the

someone who’s traveling. I heard a story

City would bestow a set of four prints

once that Mayor Frank Rizzo gave one of

representing four of Philadelphia’s artists:

the Philadelphia bowls to the queen of

Edna Andrade, John Dowell, Liz Osborne,

England, and he told her something to

and Peter Paone. John’s contribution to

the effect that he didn’t know what she

the portfolio was also one of the prints

would do with it, but that it would hold

he talked about in terms of the music.

two pounds of rigatoni [laughs]. WV: That’s a good story! What did the queen say? OG: She was very discrete. But here’s the thing. It was a reaction to a threedimensional, huge thing. We thought it would be better to have something flat that also supported Philadelphia’s artists. WV: Yes, absolutely. Speaking of Edna Andrade, can we talk a bit about her? AM: Don and I knew Edna well. We once went over to visit her on an island off Bar

Celebrating the Phillies (from The Philadelphia Portfolio), 1981 by Edna Andrade

Harbor, Maine, and she drove us around

she showed us that she was trying to

to show us some of the rocky places

duplicate these drawings of rock in paint

she loved to draw. Her wonderful old car

on canvas. In her studio, the canvases

didn’t have a floor [laughs].

were stacked up around the wall. She was really discouraged and grumpy

DM: It was an old Datsun. On this island—

because she just couldn’t get it right.

one of the Cranberry Islands—people

And I don’t know if she ever did succeed

have cars, but they don’t need licenses,

to her satisfaction in creating a painting

they don’t need registrations, because

from this series of drawings.

there’s nobody there [laughs]. Edna was like a character in a movie. She had a big

OG: Peter made a comment about the

hat on and she was driving us around the

light. One of things that I enjoy in this

island in this Datsun. You’d look down

drawing is the overall gray tone of the

and you could see the road whipping by!

graphite and the foreground drama

It was really a wreck.

to the right—there’s an effect of this intense light bleaching out the clarity of

AM: It was interesting going to the

detail in the shaded areas. She creates

specific spots where she would spend all

a difference with stronger light and

those hours; her large graphite drawings

less detail. It’s a nice altering of the

are accurate depictions of those places.

characteristics of vision for me.

PP: Do you think she worked from

DM: A white silhouette!

photographs?

PP: Her early work was very Dalí-esque,

AM: She may have, but these are actual

with that same kind of precision of

sites very close to where she lived.

surreal painting. She did a whole series

PP: The reason I ask is because the light,

of paintings with circus imagery that was

which is so very dramatic, is fixed. And if

very precise and very imaginative.

you’re standing there for a couple hours

AM: One of the wonderful things about

it’s going to change.

Edna was that she never stopped working despite having severe arthritis.

DM: When we visited Edna that day, 99

She could use a drawing pen and do the

rocks satisfied a different kind of

most articulate, precise work. You’d look

compulsion, because nothing else in her

at some of her prints and your eyeballs

work is from nature.

would go twirling around because of

PP: Many artists, and I would put Edna

the way that she would manipulate your

in this category, focus on something

vision. She was a fantastic lady. I always

for a long time and get really good

admired her because she worked right

with their facility. Then, it may arise, if

up to the end. Sometimes she would get

you’re very honest with yourself, that

very frustrated, but on the other hand,

you hit a wall, and you might not believe

she still produced terrific work.

you have anything new to say. So to

WV: At a certain point in her career she

avoid repeating yourself, you look for

moved away from making the hard-

something else. And often the thing

edged, abstract works that she was best

you look for is the opposite of what

known for and turned to these realist

you’ve been doing. It’s not an extension

images of rock formations. Did you ever

of what you’ve been doing, because

ask her why?

then you’ll be snapped right back to what it was. And Edna knew her facility

OG: It wasn’t either/or. For quite a period

with representation from her early work

of time she was doing both concurrently.

before she got into the abstraction.

We can look at the dates. I think the

AM: The drawings from the Cranberry

WV: At a certain point in her career she

Islands are among my very favorite works

moved away from making the hard-

in the collection. On one hand they are in

edged, abstract works that she was best

fact abstractions, and on the other hand

known for and turned to these realist

you recognize the landscape and know

images of rock formations. Did you ever

where you are if you’re familiar with the

ask her why?

area around Bar Harbor, the islands, and the views out and so forth.

OG: It wasn’t either/or. For quite a period of time she was doing both concurrently.

PP: Yes. She chose the subject, which is

We can look at the dates. I think the

very abstract. I mean the forms and the 100

way they’re put together reveal the mind

and photographs from nature, bodies of

of an abstract artist.

water, and now snow and glaciers. She pursues a more and more difficult vision,

OG: There are no trees, no grass.

traveling to the Arctic and the Antarctic,

PP: Exactly—they’re just huge forms

looking down from great heights, even

that compete with small forms, even

helicopters. She’s done volcanoes, and

the way she used the linear division of

at the same time she had that wonderful

the cracks in the stone to separate and

summer making art in Giverny.

compartmentalize some of the areas. I

WV: And you have a wonderful Giverny

saw Edna quite a bit toward the end of

painting!

her life. These are old stones. They’re full of wrinkles. These are stones that have

AM: Yes, wonderful. But let’s not forget

been cracking with age. At the same

that we have to talk about Peter Paone!

time, the cradling of the smaller rocks in

WV: Yes, let’s. I love everything about the

the larger forms is womb-like. They’re not

circus to begin with, and Peter’s circus

like Liz’s depictions of Maine, with rocks

series is particularly wonderful. It feels

that are bright and colorful. These are old

like a conversation with Robert Riggs, an

stones.

artist we both admire, and Riggs’s great

WV: So we can interpret these as a

circus lithographs.

portrait of old age. You mention Liz,

AM: I love this man in the front with the

and there are three works of art in the

elephant ears. And there’s one elephant

collection that form a landscape trio:

down and one elephant standing. I like

the drawing by Edna that we’ve been

the circus too. Don, who’s the French

discussing, a watercolor by Liz, and a

artist that I like so much who depicted

monoprint by Diane Burko that also

the circus?

shows the sea and the rocky coasts. I’m betting that Diane is a friend of yours.

DM: James Tissot?

AM: Oh, yes, we know Diane. She’s been

AM: Yes, Tissot. I know that Peter knows

doing many series of work, paintings,

Tissot. 101

PP: Oh, yes, I think we both own the

so there’s that Philadelphia circle that

same print by Tissot—the Amazon

keeps turning.

driving the horses. One thing I can add

WV: I’m looking forward to seeing the

to the conversation about this print is

juxtaposition in the exhibition of the print

that when I was a boy, the circus came

by Isaiah Zagar and your circus print.

to town. They pitched tents and had

They make a wonderful conversation.

wagons and sideshows and they did

Like your clown, the main character

it down in South Philadelphia—I’m not

in Dog Wedding (1987) stands there

sure what it’s called, is it League Island

performing with his hands out, coming

down there?—down by Prospect Park.

out of a wedding cake stark naked.

My point is that I was a boy, maybe 11

The multiple flat elements of hands are

or 12 years old, and I have a feeling that

important in both images.

Riggs was there working as an artist. He was a Philadelphian and he went right

PP: You spoke about the technique of

to the sites to do his drawings, which he

Edna Andrade and her precision. There’s

then made into lithographs. So there I

a different but equally impressive kind

was enjoying the circus and there was

of precision in Zagar’s print. It’s very

this artist I was to admire later on making

polished and a huge amount of time was

drawings. As a collector myself I have the

dedicated to creating the intricacies of

entire set of Riggs’s circus lithographs.

the background—and the flies, which I think are rubber stamps. There’s no blank

WV: Did you know Robert Riggs?

area there—everything is filled.

PP: No. In the end, he was a diabetic and

AM: I like the whimsy in yours, Peter,

he lost his legs, so he was homebound.

where the hand is walking along and

But he taught at the Philadelphia

you’ve made the wrist into a head with

Museum School of Industrial Art [now

a little hat. It’s very graceful, just walking

the University of the Arts] before I got

along. You don’t see it right away, then all

there and his legacy and example were

of a sudden you realize what it is. To my

strong. He was one of Jacob Landau’s

mind, this is supremely à la Peter.

teachers. Albert Gold inherited his estate, 102

Imogene and Friend, undated, by Dan Miller

often, more than many people I know. I think these were not from the Print Club, at least not during my time. DM: I don’t think so. Most of them we purchased in Maine. WV: Did you buy them directly from Dan or did he show in a gallery there? DM: He showed in a gallery just north of Ellsworth, just above Mount Desert Island. His summer home was in Corea, not far from Bar Harbor. And the gallery where he showed was basically a pottery. The owners were potters and they exhibited

WV: We have to talk about Dan

his work, so that’s where we bought all

Miller, another Philadelphia and Maine

the Dan Millers, along with a fair number

artist who is well-represented in your

of his blocks.

collection.

PP: I heard of Dan when I established the

DM: With regard to Dan, one of the

print department at the Pennsylvania

things I look for in a work of art is

Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). He

craftsmanship. Dan’s woodblock carvings

was teaching painting at PAFA at the

and the resulting prints are the epitome

time because they didn’t have a print

of craftsmanship. Look at his portraits—

department. In 1980, I walked in on his

how does he create that sense of

painting class and asked if he wanted

animation starting with a block of wood?

to teach printmaking, particularly woodblock, and he said yes. He’s been

OG: You chose to purchase woodcuts

103

teaching it there ever since. He not only

exhibitions. We still have the receipt in a

carves his own blocks, he prints them

frame at home. It was from 1957.

too. He does it all himself. He prints

PP: I knew Helen. She was the wife of

these editions. If you ever slap him on

Theodor Siegl, who was a conservator

the shoulder, it’s like slapping a rock. He

at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He

has great strength in his hands. And he

was the one who originally conserved

cuts his blocks, not with a tool, but with

Thomas Eakins’s The Gross Clinic (1875)

a single-edge razor blade. He’s got a

back in 1961.

shoebox next to his table full of singleedge razor blades.

WV: So this was the print that started it all!

OG: And where does he keep the bandages?

PP: At the time, PAFA had a national annual show, which was both an

PP: He must have a leather finger after all

invitational and a competitive exhibition;

these years. They’re all cut in a V-shape:

it had been taking place for a hundred

one slice this way, one slice that way,

years or more. Look closely at the

then snap it out. You can see it, if you

print, because she didn’t use wood, she

get up close, which is amazing because a

used plaster. She cut from plaster and

single gauge can’t do that. He cuts very

that’s how she invents these unusual,

small pieces one at a time rather than

interesting textures, like here on the

making one long swing. And that’s how

bottom of the tree.

he gets all this fabulous detail, like the wings of the moth here.

OG: She talked about the difficulty of finding wood planks, and the expense of

WV: Right, and the ability to get texture.

it, during World War II. She would make

DM: Bill, I’m glad you’re thinking of

a plaster block, first with the frame, and

hanging Helen Siegl’s Crow’s Nest

then would pour plaster and let it dry.

(undated) with Dan’s print. Hers was the

That’s how she made her blocks. And

first print we ever bought—and for $25.

then, of course, she got used to not

We got it at one of PAFA’s last annual

having the problem of the grain—she 104

didn’t have the advantage of the grain,

WV: This piece is important to you, Don.

but she didn’t have the difficulty of

Can you tell us about it?

working for or against the grain, so that

DM: Well, I like it. It’s one of these things

allowed her to do more curves.

you can’t help liking because it’s so funny,

PP: Also she did a lot of shape prints,

so outrageous: “Cable-knitted news. All

which the plaster allowed—circles and

the news that fit to knit.”

ovals.

AM: Phil is one of the funniest people I’ve

WV: We have to discuss Lois Johnson

ever met.

because she too is deeply represented in

WV: It’s very funny. I believe you told

your collection. We’ll show Panic Button

me, Don, that Phil Simkin also performed

(undated)—the idea of a panic button as

a conceptual work at a benefit event

the subject of a work of art has a sense

for the Print Club with a conveyor belt;

of drama unto itself. Johnson taught at

each work was placed on the belt and if

PCA in the 1970s, correct?

it wasn’t purchased while it was on the

OG: And subsequently she was on the

belt it landed in the mouth of a paper

board of the Print Club or at least she

shredder at the other end. This was at a

was around very often. She brought

street party on Latimer Street, in front

students and she was very involved.

of the Print Club, right? I’ve heard that this caused a stir and made it into the

DM: She was also involved in Prints in

Philadelphia Inquirer.

Progress. And she was married to Phil

OG: They both participated, Lois

Simkin.

and Phil, he more than she. She was

WV: Ah, Phil Simkin is another artist

full time at PCA and I think he really

I thought we would talk about. His

wrote grants and did projects. For the

machine-knitted print will also be in the

bicentennial celebration he got a grant

exhibition.

for a performance, a “happening” to take

AM: There’s a self-portrait within with the

place on the Parkway; he made wearable

mustache.

jigsaw puzzle pieces out of thick 105

mattress foam with a hole in the center,

from art? Why is this artist in the Craft

which you wore around your waist. You

Show and not in the museum itself?

went around looking for people whose

WV: Well, if you hadn’t told me that

parts were the fit for yours.

you bought this at the Craft Show, it

DM: Phil even talked the National Park

never would have occurred to me that

Service into letting him make a plaster

you hadn’t bought it in an art gallery or

cast of the crack in the Liberty Bell!

directly from the artist. We don’t make a distinction between craft and fine art at

AM: Yes, for the Bicentennial, and he

Woodmere.

exhibited the crack.

OG: This artist could have chosen to

OG: That kind of imagination!

go the other route and not chosen to exhibit at the Craft Show. This is not a

DM: He was a real Duchampian.

universal comment on all art and craft, WV: Well, Philadelphia is the city of

but this particular work seems to me to

Marcel Duchamp. I’m going to remember

be in either category. Someone else who

this conceptual piece about the crack for

should be noted is Eugene Feldman. I

our eventual exhibition about Duchamp’s

have the impression that his wife, Rosina,

influence across the arts of our city.

was on the board of the Print Club. I think he was the owner of Falcon Press,

AM: Another woven work of art is by

which was a Philadelphia press that

Ed Bing Lee. That man can knit like you

worked in offset and made really high-

wouldn’t believe! The last time he showed

end, beautiful art. I think the Philadelphia

at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft

Museum of Art has some things that

Show, I just swooned over one of his

the press did, as does the Rosenbach

knitted hamburgers. I wanted it so badly,

Museum. Gene was often spoken about

but I just couldn’t.

as someone who was admired and

OG: It’s permanent and nonfattening!

influential.

DM: This is a good example of a question

PP: I worked with him as a student at

I have. What is craft as differentiated

PCA. He taught out of his commercial 106

print shop on Ludlow Street. It was quite

he positioned the portrait. He worked

extensive, with huge offset presses. He

with photographs, translating them to

invited a number of us to come in and

big plates and building on that. He was

make offset prints. In the mid-1950s

way ahead of his time. And then his

that was very experimental. I did several