Louise Bourgeois. I See You!!. 2008. Etching, 150.2 x 61.3 cm. Publisher: Osiris Editions, New York. Printer: Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Edition: 9. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Louise Bourgeois Trust, 2011. © 2012 Louise Bourgeois Trust |
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Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
212-708-9431
New York
The Paul J. Sachs Prints
and Illustrated Books Galleries, second floor
New to the Print Collection:
Matisse to Bourgeois
June 13-January 7, 2013
On view for the first time at MoMA, these seminal works in the history of printmaking span more than a century, from 1888 to 2011, with some contextualized by related works already in the collection. Pablo Picasso’s 1937 print The Weeping Woman, acquired in 2011, which filled one of the last major gaps in MoMA’s holdings of works by the artist, is shown alongside the third state of the same image that joined the collection in 1999. Likewise, the 1958 linoleum cut Solid as a Rock (My God Is Rock), by Charles White, acquired in 2010, is complemented by a lithograph by White that was donated to the Museum more than 40 years ago, and illuminates White’s widespread impact on a younger generation of artists. Other highlights include Jasper Johns’s celebrated screenprint Flags I (1973), two vertical flags printed with 31 screens, which adds a key example of Johns’ early screen printing to the collection. The exhibition also addresses more experimental processes that have often led to rare or one-of-a-kind works, from James Ensor’s hand-colored Deadly Sins (1888-1904) and a group of Henri Matisse’s monotypes (1914-15), to a recent monumental cyanotype by Christian Marclay.
The Museum of Modern Art’s collection of prints was inaugurated with the founding of the Museum in November 1929: a group of German Expressionist prints were among the first objects MoMA acquired. Today, the Museum’s holdings in this area comprise more than 50,000 works from the late 19th century to the present. The holdings are regularly reevaluated and reshaped by the Museum’s curators; works are routinely added, not only to fill gaps but also to give stronger emphasis to lesser-known or previously overlooked artists or practices, reflecting the ways in which new generations of scholars and artists are redefining the discipline of printmaking.
New to Print is organized by Christophe Cherix, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, with Judy Hecker, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books.
Pablo Picasso. The Weeping Woman, I (La femme qui pleure, I), state VII. 1937. Drypoint, aquatint, etching, and scraper, 377.4 x 57.3 cm. Publisher: the artist, Paris. Printer: Lacourière, Paris. Edition: 15. The Museum of Modenr Art, New York. Acquired through the generosity of David Rockefeller, Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen, Debra and Leon Black, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Joan H. Tisch, Alice and Tom Tisch, Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Marie Josée and Henry Kravis, Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer, Mary M. Spencer, Donald B. Marron, and Agnes Gund in memory of Joanne M. Stern, 2011. © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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