Reverting to Type – New North Press London Exhibition

Exhibition: Reverting to Type
New North Press, London
Through 22 January 2011

 

Graphic Design © & courtesy New North Press, London

 

Reverting to Type is an exhibition of contemporary letterpress practitioners, showcasing how a centuries-old craft is being reinvented for modern day usage

The exhibition is curated by Graham Bignell of New North Press and graphic designer Richard Ardagh and features prints and publications by progressive practitioners from around the world.

Reverting to Type aims to highlight the pioneers at the helm of the current resurgence of interest in letterpress; from computer-based designers with a desire to ply a craft with a tactile immediacy that has been lost with modern technology, to traditional presses finding new ways to revitalise their design output.

Established in 1986 by Graham Bignell, New North Press is an artisan letterpress print studio, specialising in setting and printing by hand. Richard Ardagh is a graphic designer who has worked with New North Press to produce collaborative poster editions such as Oranges & Lemons and a 150th anniversary print for Wilton’s Music Hall.

To coincide with the exhibition, New North Press has published the first of an on-going series of collaborative prints by contemporary artists, designers and wordsmiths. The majority of the show’s unique exhibits are for sale and the gallery also host a working Adana press to hand-print your own personalised cards.

Contributers
Black Stone CAN / Brad Vetter USA / Carl Middleton UK / Dafi Kühne CH / Flowers&Fluerons UK / Hand & Eye UK  / Hatch Show Print USA / Hi-Artz UK / IMPO$T AUS  / Jens Jørgen Hansen DEN / Marcus Müller CH  / Mark Pavey UK / Mr Smith UK / Occasional Print Club UK / Prensa La Libertad ARG / Rosa De Carlo UK / Team Nerd USA / Typoretum UK / Yee Haw! Industries USA

Collaborators
Catherine Dixon / David Peason / Fraser Muggeridge Studio / OPX design / Peter Aston Jones / Phil Baines / Stevey Scullion / Vikram Seth

NEW NORTH PRESS / Standpoint Gallery
45 Coronet street
LONDON N1 6HD, UK

www.new-north-press.co.uk

10.12 - 24.12.2010 / 04.01 - 22.01.2011

Christophe Cherix, MoMA Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books

Christophe Cherix Appointed Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at MoMA, New York

CHRISTOPHE CHERIX, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, NY. 
© Photograph by Robin Holland. Courtesy of MoMA

Christophe Cherix has been appointed The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art. In this role, he will guide all aspects of the department, including its installations, acquisitions, exhibitions, and loan programs. Mr. Cherix has served as Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at MoMA since 2007. He succeeds Deborah Wye, who will assume the position of Chief Curator Emerita.

Christophe Cherix's concentration is modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on printed art of the 1960s and 1970s. He has specialized in such American artists as Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Barry Le Va, Allen Ruppersberg, and Mel Bochner, and in European figures including John M Armleder, Maurizio Nannucci, and Lucy McKenzie. A longstanding interest of Cherix has been artists’ books, and at one point in his career he cofounded a publishing house where this medium was a focal point. As commissioner of the 25th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Slovenia in 2003, he featured artists’ books as well as a range of printed works that expanded traditional definitions of the medium.  

“Christophe is an outstanding curator who has demonstrated leadership in organizing exhibitions and working with MoMA’s extensive collection of prints and illustrated books,” said MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry.  “He brings to this position a critically important breadth of knowledge and passion for modern and contemporary printed art that is matched by his ability to work with colleagues across the institution and beyond.”

At MoMA he most recently co-organized, with MoMA’s Associate Director Kathy Halbreich, the exhibition Contemporary Art from the Collection (through May 9, 2011). He also organized the exhibitions In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976 (2009); Projects 88: Lucy McKenzie (2008); and Book/Shelf (2008), an exploration of how artists have used the book as an object in contemporary art. He is currently organizing a survey of prints, books, and ephemera from the late 1980s to the present, which will open at the Museum in 2012. 

Mr. Cherix has played a key role in critical acquisitions for his department and has facilitated numerous cross-departmental acquisitions by artists such as Josef Albers, Huma Bhabha, David Hammons, General Idea, Donald Judd, Lucy McKenzie, Lyubov Popova, Robert Rauschenberg, Josh Smith, Dan Walsh, Charles White, Hannah Wilke, and Zarina. Over the last three years he has brought to the Museum major collections of European and American Conceptual art of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was also instrumental in securing the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, considered the largest and most important of its kind, which documents the founding and development of the international Fluxus movement. The collection comprises some 10,000 works in a range of mediums, an extensive archive including artists’ correspondence and scrapbooks, and a comprehensive reference library. Fluxus Preview, organized by Mr. Cherix in 2009 with MoMA’s Fluxus Consulting Curator Jon Hendricks, celebrated this important gift with a special installation of posters, newspapers, Fluxus editions, films, and photographs in the Museum’s galleries for painting and sculpture.  

Mr. Cherix plays a leadership role in the research-based collaboration C-MAP (Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives), which links MoMA curators with their colleagues around the world, encouraging international dialogue, research, and professional partnerships between institutions. His group focuses specifically on Fluxus in former Central/Eastern Europe and Japan.

Christophe Cherix began his career at the Cabinet des estampes at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva. He served in various positions, including Assistant Curator (1991-2005), and initiated important donations from artists to the collection, including Mel Bochner and Robert Morris. As Chief Curator from 2005 until 2007, he oversaw the budget, exhibition program, and acquisitions of an institution whose collection comprises over 300,000 prints. While these holdings represent the history of prints from the Renaissance to the present, the Cabinet‘s major area of concentration is modern and contemporary art. Among his recent exhibitions was a study of Henri Matisse’s prints (2006) and a survey of vacuum-formed plastic multiples, organized with New York painter John Tremblay, which featured nearly thirty artists ranging from Claes Oldenburg to Gillian Wearing (2007). During that period, Mr. Cherix actively cultivated a relationship between the Cabinet des estampes and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Geneva (MAMCO), enabling the two institutions to collaborate on joint projects. 

His numerous publications include the catalogue accompanying In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976, and the catalogues raisonnés of prints by Henri Michaux (coauthored with Rainer Michael Mason) and Robert Morris. In addition, he has written extensively for many art journals and has participated widely in panels and lecture series at museums and other venues. 

Christophe Cherix was born in Switzerland and received a License ès lettres from the University of Geneva. He was a Fellow of the Class of 2010 at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York, which included a residency at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has been active in many organizations and committees that support the arts, both in Europe and the United States.

MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, NYC

www.moma.org

NY Art Book Fair 2010 – MoMA PS1

The NY Art Book Fair 2010
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
November 5-7, 2010

Printed Matter, the world’s largest nonproft organization dedicated to publications by artists, presents the fifth annual NY Art Book Fair, November 5–7 at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. Free and open to the public, the Fair hosts over 230 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, artists and publishers from twenty-one countries, offering the best in contemporary art-book publishing.

Philip Aarons, Chairman of the Board for Printed Matter, said: “The NY Art Book Fair is the premier venue to find what’s new in art publishing. While it has spawned a new generation of independent art book fairs world-wide, it remains the biggest, the best, and by far the most fun.”

The NY Art Book Fair includes special project rooms, screenings, book signings, and performances, throughout the weekend. Other events include the third annual Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference and The Classroom, a curated series of informal conversations between artists, together with readings, workshops and other artist-led events.

Artist’s Project
Leidy Churchman takes over the lobby with a large set of facsimile book paintings on wood. Drawing upon the stacks at the Museum of Modern Art Library, Library with friend and librarian David Senior, Churchman traces a unique and fetching portrait of artists’ publications from the last hundred years.

Featured Countries
This year, the NY Art Book Fair celebrates eighteen cutting-edge publishers from The Netherlands, including a project room by Kunstverein Amsterdam (Amsterdam) and Witte de With (Rotterdam), together with a variety of book launches and informal presentations in the dutch Pavilion. Other countries represented include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland,  Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

Antiquarian Dealers
Exhibitors present collections of rare Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Fluxus, and the avant-garde from Japan, Europe, and North America. Exhibitors include: John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz (East Hampton), Harper’s Books (East Hampton), Marcus Campbell (London), Steven leiber (San Francisco), Sims reed (London), Stefan Schuelke (Cologne), and others.

Artists & Activists
This diverse group of politically minded artists and collectives focus on the intersection of art and activism. Exhibitors include: Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (Los Angeles), GuerrillaGirlsBroadBand (New York), The Yes Men (New York), Bread and Puppet (Glover, Vermont), Center for Urban Pedagogy (Brooklyn), and Temporary Services (Chicago), among others.

Zines by Artists
A lively selection of international zinesters will represent independent publishing at its most innovative and affordable. Exhibitors include: The Holster (Brooklyn), Nieves (Zurich), Ooga Booga (Los Angeles), and ZINE’S MATE (Tokyo), among others. A special section of queer zines includes our favorites, from Original Plumbing (San Francisco) and Girls Like Us (Amsterdam) to PINUPS (Brooklyn).

Limited Editions
Printed Matter presents new limited editions by artists Rachel Harrison, Christian Holstad and Misaki Kawai, published on the occasion of the NY Art Book Fair 2010. Purchase of these editions supports the Fair, ensuring the event remains free and open to the public. 

The NY art book fair Committee
Philip Aarons, AA Bronson, Skuta Helgason, Catherine Krudy, Carolina Nitsch, Richard Prince, Dieter von Graffenreid, John Waters, and Matthew Zucker

A list of exhibitors, event schedule, and more information is available at www.nyartbookfair.com

MoMA PS1 
22-25 Jackson Ave at the intersection  of 46th Ave
Long Island City, NY

Free and open to the public:
Thursday, November 4, 6-9 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, November 5 & 6, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sunday, November 7, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Printed Matter, Inc.
195 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY

www.printedmatter.org

Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

Front View of The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

(c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

A part of the exhibition

(c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

Museum Shop (c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

Facts about the museum

In today’s information society, museums act as knowledge repositories and thus form a bridge between history and the present day. This is certainly true of the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts, where the production of print media can be experienced with all the senses. A very special experience awaits those who are able to visit the Museum of the Printing Arts in Leipzig. By combining a working print shop and a museum, it provides a close-up view of five hundred years of printing history. In this unique setting, more than 200 working machines and presses demonstrate the techniques of copperplate printing, lithography and letterpress. The museum’s four floors are devoted to manual and mechanical typesetting and the various printing processes. A type foundry in full working order shows visitors how lead type is cast either by hand or by machine – a genuine rarity.

Visitors become acquainted with the ‘black art’, as printing has always been known, which is vividly brought to life in this ‘hands-on’ museum whose motto is “see, smell and touch”. Guided by the specialist staff, visitors can set lines of text themselves or have various motifs printed on the platen presses as they tour the exhibition. In addition to printing machines, the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts has some forty tons of lead type, matrices and steel dies in its collection, for a wide variety of typefaces of European and oriental origin. It also houses a fully equipped bindery where books can be bound by hand. Visitors can watch modern graphic prints being produced and can purchase them in the museum shop, together with samples of lead type, cards, ex-libris folders and small graphic artworks. Artists often come to the museum too in order to produce woodcuts, lithographs and etchings on historic machines.

The Museum of the Printing Arts holds regular workshops and courses on the use of historic printing techniques. Under the expert guidance of artists, participants can produce their own etchings and lithographs, and print them by traditional means. Traditional typesetting, letterpress printing and bookbinding techniques can also be learned at workshops run by the Museum. The annual festival, known as ‘Leipziger Typotage’, exhibitions on special topics and numerous other events complete the museum’s attractive programme.

http://www.druckkunst-museum.de/

Daniel Berkeley Updike, The Well-Made Book - On the art of the book. Edited by William S. Peterson

Mark Batty Publisher announces the publication of “The Well-Made Book: Essays and Lectures by Daniel Berkeley Updike”, edited and with an introduction by William S. Peterson. This book is a collection of Daniel Berkeley Updike's writtings on the art of the book

The distinguished printer Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941), proprietor of the Merrymount Press in Boston, has been described as “the most distinguished American printer,” and was also one of the most successful and influential book designers of the 20th century. This 400-page, illustrated collection encompasses virtually all of Updike’s writings on the arts of the book.

Daniel Berkeley Updike, The Well-Made Book: Essays and Lectures 

Image courtesy Mark Batty Publisher

Updike’s aesthetic philosophy and commitment of quality in the making of books have a special relevance today at a time of rapid change in the media arts. The Well-Made Book is a substantial and timeless collection of virtually all of Updike’s writings on the art of the book. William S. Peterson has researched, unearthed and assembled this wealth of material – much of which will be new even to those readers who are familiar with Updike’s writings. “Until the publication of The WellMade Book, many of these important and revealing essays have been hard to find,” notes publisher Mark Batty, “and some of Updike’s writing featured in this book appears here for the first time” There is a complete index, annotations, and a new scholarly introduction by Peterson.

The Well-Made Book is also available in a special, extra-illustrated edition of 40 copies featuring 11 ephemeral pieces: nine pages from books designed and printed by Updike spanning his 20th century career, together with specially prepared letterpress printed additional items, and a reproduction of an unpublished photographic portrait.

William S. Peterson is Professor of English at the University of Maryland, and the author of several books on William Morris and the Kelmscott Press, and the editor of The Ideal Book (1982), a collection of Morris’ writings on the book arts. His books have won numerous honors, including the Premio Felice Feliciano, the Besterman Award, and a nomination for the National Book Award.

About Mark Batty Publisher

Mark Batty Publisher LLC is dedicated to creating a list of distinctive books in these subject areas: graphic design; lettering and the printing arts; media and graphic communication; and art and popular culture. The books are chosen for their long-term relevance, for the clarity of their message, and their usefulness and aesthetic appeal. Each book is thoughtfully designed to the highest standards, produced for dependable use and manufactured employing quality archival materials. Most are extensively illustrated. 

The Well-Made Book: Essays and Lectures by Daniel Berkeley Updike

Edited by William S. Peterson

Mark Batty Publisher, West New York, NJ 

408 pages, 31 full page illustrations, many in 2 colors

Case bound in cloth, dust jacket, 6 x 9 inches - Price: $55

Special edition of 40 extra illustrated copies: $220

MARK BATTY PUBLISHER 

6050 Boulevard East, Suite 2H 

West New York, New Jersey 07093 

Website: http://www.markbattypublisher.com