Experimental Print Collection Comes to Radford
On Wednesday, February 8, a new exhibition will come to Radford University’s Art Museum in the Covington Center that explores art created at the end of World War II including nine prints created by American abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollock.
The exhibition is called Pollock & the Artists of Atelier 17: Experimental Printmakers in the Age of World Conflict. It features a selection of prints by artists who worked at Stanley William Hayter's famous Atelier 17 in New York from 1944-1945.
Atelier 17 first opened in Paris in 1927, but when the Nazis invaded France in 1940, Hayter was able to move the studio to New York where it remained until 1950 when it relocated back to the French capital. While in New York, Atelier 17 had a profound impact on American printmaking, especially after a groundbreaking 1944 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Hundreds of artists from around the globe spent time at Atelier 17 from its early days until it finally closed in 1988 with the death of Hayter. In addition to Jackson Pollock, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Sue Fuller and Dorothy Gillespie were there.
Guest curator and former chair of the art department, Arthur Jones, is bringing the exhibition to Radford University.
“Initially, I only wanted to acquire Atelier 17 artworks by the famous abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, who made several engraving and drypoint prints there between 1944-1945,” Jones explained.
“After acquiring Pollock’s prints,” he said, “I decided to expand the collection by adding original prints by other artists active at Atelier 17 around the same time.”
Pollock’s work was part of the landmark MoMA show entitled Hayter and Studio 17: New Directions in Gravure, which subsequently toured the country and brought national attention to avant-garde printmaking.
In total, more than 30 artists are included in the Radford exhibition, with 24 prints that were featured in the original MoMA show nearly 80 years ago. The collection features the work of several women artists, reflecting the female presence at the 1944 exhibition.
Jones says he is most impressed by the high level of creativity to be found in this collection, despite the fact that the world was slogging through a grim and terrifying time.
“Several prints in the Radford University show allude, at least somewhat, to the traumatic realities of the time,” he said, “but many others are more abstract or surreal and do not—at least not on the surface. Perhaps these artists viewed their creative drive as a way to rescue the world and the human spirit from utter destruction.
Pollock & the Artists of Atelier 17: Experimental Printmakers in the Age of World Conflict will open at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8 and run through April 1. Jones will discuss the collection prior to the opening at 4 p.m. in Davis Performance Hall in the Covington Center.
All events are free and open to the public.