August 4, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Fine art thriving at Tamarind
By Aurelio Sanchez, Journal Staff WriterMarjorie Devon likes to say working at Tamarind is like teaching artists to speak another language.
"Let's say that Picasso wanted to make a lithograph, but he doesn't know how, so he comes in to Tamarind Institute to collaborate with a master printer to create a beautiful work of art," Devon said.
Lithography, simply stated, is a printing process by which an image is rendered on a flat surface (usually an aluminum plate), and is then treated chemically so that the image retains ink, while the nonimage areas repel ink.
By contrast, an intaglio printing plate is engraved, or etched, creating cavities to contain the ink. The woodblock printing process applies ink to raised surfaces of the letters or images.
"It's another way to express an artist's idea, and the idea is produced in multiple images, giving the artist the opportunity to reach a broader market," Devon said.
The University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute is a world-renowned center for fine art lithography. Its mission is to train collaborative master printers, develop artists' appreciation for the medium, and encourage the collaborative process to expand fine art lithography.
Perhaps more than any other institute or center, the Tamarind Institute has helped to revive and preserve a centuries-old artistic medium that seemed headed for extinction, Devon said.
Founded in 1960 in Los Angeles as the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Inc., the center for its first 10 years was totally supported by the Ford Foundation.
By 1970, the center had trained 65 highly skilled printers, produced 3,000 lithographs, and had shown an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It moved to Albuquerque the same year and became part of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico.
As a result of hundreds of workshops put on by the center around the country, lithography is now thriving in the United States, Devon said. Recently, the institute has begun to focus more attention internationally, fostering a rebirth of fine art lithography worldwide.
Meanwhile, early next year, the Tamarind hopes to break ground for a new, expanded center that promises to make its highly respected master printing program more visible to the public, and more attractive for visiting artists to come and learn the collaborative printing process, Devon said.
The institute, now at 110 Cornell SE, will move just around the corner to Central and Stanford SE, where ground will be broken around Jan. 1 for a $5 million capital improvement project that will be built with a combination of private and public money.
Devon said a fundraising drive is about $120,000 short of its goal, but she added she expects the fundraising goal to be met in time for the ground-breaking. To raise money, the center is selling a limited edition original lithograph titled "Lobo Layup," featuring former Lobo basketball star J.R. Giddens, and created by LeRoy Nieman. For information, call 277-3901.
In the meantime, the center is showcasing the works of artists who have recently collaborated at the center. They include pop art pioneer Jim Dine, a painter, sculptor, printmaker and photographer; Garo Antreasian, a lithographer, painter and Tamarind co-founder; and iconic pop flower artist Polly Apfelbaum.
During a recent student workshop at the Tamarind, student Antonietta Covino-Beehre of Australia said she decided to come to Tamarind because of its worldwide reputation. She added that she loves the element of chance involved in creating multiple images for a lithograph.
"The truth is that 99 percent of the time, the work turns out fantastic," she said.
Brandon Gunn, who just completed the master printer's program at the Tamarind, said he plans to teach or open his own printing shop.
"Lithography is right for me because there's a lot of hands-on stuff, a blending of technical and artistic elements, and I like that it all comes together to create a work of art," he said. "I also really like the idea of working collaboratively with an artist."
Devon stressed the collaborative aspect of lithography, saying that too many people still have the misconception that lithography is simply creating reproductions of a work of art.
"These are original works of art produced by an artist and a master printer, produced in multiples," she said.
Valpuri Kylmänen, a student from Norway, said she hopes to help revive the ancient time-honored artistic medium in her own country.
"It's a beautiful medium for art," she said. "Why not try to keep it alive?"