'Kenneth Tyler' 'Thirty Years Of Printmaking'

I had the privilege to view a public collection of various artists, under the collaboration of Kenneth Tyler at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum of Rollins College - Winter Park back in 2000. This was a diverse collection of American printmaking, entitled "Thirty Years of Printmaking" and represented the ongoing change of the printmaking discipline since the early 1960's.

Speaking of the change in printmaking, it wasn't until the sixties that artists left the black and white finelined boundaries of printmaking to meander onto something more complex and more rewarding. Integrating sculpture and paint into printmaking merged a whole different artform. The flat, two dimensional, drab, black and white, limited in size forms, turned into large, colorful, three dimensional prints bearing paints and sculpted forms.

One artist's work displayed was Roy Lichtenstein, who, in his series titled 'Reflections' paints huge prints of comic strip heroes with the vibrant mixes of primary colors they deserve. Another artist displayed was Robert Rauschenburg who set the record for size in 1967 with his masterpiece 'Booster', which incorporates a life-size X-ray of the artist (7 feet). Other known artists of the movement include Andy Warhol with his screen prints of movie stars and Jasper Johns' sculpted lead prints.

All and all, this exhibit was very historical and defined an era in art that was not previously defined to me. This movement will definitely be looked upon in the future and provokes much thought from the artistic eye. I highly recommend the art of those mentioned here and the mastercraftmanship of printmaker Ken Tyler.