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More
Prints from the Permanent Collection
Through
September 7, 2008
West Valley Art Museum in Surprise
is offering visitors to the
Museum an opportunity to see more of
its collection of fine prints
through the summer months. Fine
prints are works in multiple
created by the artist in small
editions for several reasons ranging
from the attraction of the process
to the artist to a desire on the
artist’s part to make some images
available to the public at more
affordable prices. Fine prints
always have the artists’ direct
involvement in the process if not
the whole printing activity itself.
This is the second time in the last
year prints are being presented.
Many of the artists are not as well
known as those represented in the
last exhibit. Artists such as Helen
West Heller, Charles Okerbloom and
Mina Pulsifer were known in a region
but perhaps not nationally. Many
were influential teachers in art
schools and Universities. Not all
the
works on display are in the
Permanent Collection as yet.
As you stand at the entry to the
exhibit, the two long walls to the
left and right contain works that
the Museum is considering placing in
the Permanent Collection. The
process is called “accessioning” and
consists of presenting the art to
the Collections Committee of West
Valley Art Museum made up of the
curators and expert volunteers.
The committee examines the art and
questions the curators as to
the backgrounds of the artists if
they are unfamiliar with them and
reads any research material the
curators have found and presented.
After discussion the question of
accession is put to a vote and the
recommendations are presented at the
next Board of Trustees
meeting by the curators. The Board
can accept or reject the
recommendations of the committee but
usually acts positively on the
committee’s choices.
Who becomes a “big name”? It is hard
to predict. Many of these
“unknowns” were quite well known
when they were alive. Being out of
the limelight for a number of years
doesn’t mean that they are
forgotten. In many cases the work is
still being collected privately,
sold at auction and bequeathed to
Museums. West Valley Art Museum
receives works in many ways.
Sometimes the artist or artist’s
family
donates it to the Museum. Other
times it may come from a collector.
Rarely, but on occasion, someone
comes forward with an offer to buy a
work for the collection.
The range of print mediums covered
in this exhibit extends from wood
block printing (carving the face of
a block and inking it to print),
etching (a metal plate is scratched
with a drawing either directly [dry
point] or through a coating covering
the plate), lithography (in this
case the drawing is done on a
limestone block with a greasy crayon
and the stone kept wet while inking)
and silk screen printing.
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Chinese Woman
By Mina Pulsifer
Long Necked Woman
By
Charles Okerbloom
Basket Weaving
By
Helen West Heller |
