Forgotten Wisdoms
Prints by Linda Schwarz
at The Print Center, in Philadelphia
Linda Schwarz is one of the most innovative printmakers active today. Appropriation and alteration of existing imagery lies at the heart of her work. She commonly uses text fragments, musical scores or historically based documents as a starting point. She then applies an intricate process of repeated alteration and overprinting of images (often printing on both sides of the paper) to fashion richly textured and highly detailed visual amalgams in which form and content become closely linked. Along the way, historical references are made her own, culminating in unique and compelling personal expressions.
At The Print Center, in Philadelphia, the prints exhibited by Linda Schwarz derived from historical literary sources: "Daniel Pfisterer" and "Dioskurides." Daniel Pfisterer (1651-1728), a protestant minister at Königen near Stuttgart, Germany, began a sketch-book in 1716, which he used to record personal observations of plants, insects, birds, and people. "Dioskurides" is derived from the most significant Byzantine manuscript of secular content. It is also the oldest illuminated version of the writings of Dioscorides. For more than 1500 years this work, concerning medicines and other treatments drawn from the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms, formed the undisputed basis of knowledge for doctors and pharmacists.
Linda Schwarz's print processes range from such traditional techniques as woodcut, etching and chine collé to modern innovations that include Xerox transfers, viscosity printing and acrylic glazes. Her editioned work is commonly printed on handmade paper and sometimes features handpainted additions in tempera, ink, or varnish.
Linda Schwarz's prints are collected privately and can be found in many public institutions in the United States and Europe including the Graphische Sammlung der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The New York Public Library, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art and the Baltimore Museum of Fine Arts.
Currently at The Print Center:
Bad Girls, Good Girls: Prints by Ann Chernow
Alone Together: Photographs by David Graham
FORGOTTEN WISDOMS: PRINTS BY LINDA SCHWARZ
February 28 - May 3, 2003
THE PRINT CENTER
1614 Latimer Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
