The Boston Printmaking Society:

Field Report

Nov 10, 2009 to Dec 19, 2009

Location: Kellogg University Art Gallery

About the Exhibition History Exhibited Artwork Promotional Material

boston printmaking societyy The Boston Printmakers is a North American print alliance with a juried membership of 320 seasoned and emerging printmakers. It has a long history of producing exhibitions, events and publications promoting the understanding and appreciation of fine art printmaking. Field Report is a traveling members’ show, organized to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Boston Printmakers. The exhibition was open to all members.

The show of 180 artists is divided into three parts, each section organized to include members from all areas of North America and all printmaking media . All three were shown in the opening exhibition at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts in the spring of 2008; two sections traveled to the Brickbottom Gallery in Boston in September, 2008 One section of Field Report was shown at Janotta Gallery at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, in February of 2009. Two sections are scheduled to be shown at the Moss-Thoms Gallery of Art in Hays, Kansas, in September of 2009 and the entire exhibition will be on view in the Kellogg University Art Gallery on the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, in November- December of 2009. This latter exhibition coincides with the 2009 Los Angeles Print Society Exhibition.

Field Report offers an opportunity to see high quality contemporary printmaking in a wide range of media from across the country The Boston Printmakers is particularly interested in making this experience available to students.

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Artwork from the Boston Printmaking Society
A brief history of the Boston Printmakers

The Boston Printmakers was founded by a small group of senior students and faculty at the Boston Museum School and the Massachusetts College of Art. They held their first meeting at the Wiggin Gallery at the Boston Public Library in the autumn of 1947. Their host at this first meeting waws the late Arthur Heintzelman, a distinguished etcher and the Library's Keeper of Prints. Also in attendance were Ture Bengtz, head of the Museum School's graphic arts department and Otis Philbrick, head of the Massachusetts College of Art's painting and graphics department. Both of these men continued to guide The Boston Printmakers until their deaths in 1973.

In the spring of 1948, the group mounted its first exhibition on the fourth floor of the Paine's Furniture Store in Park Square, Boston. Visitors had to field an obstacle course of beds, sofas, bureaus, and other household furnishings. A full gamut of contemporary printmaking was represented- etchings, drypoints, linocuts, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts wood engravings, and even the newly popular serigraphs.

The debut was a stunning success, so much so that, by the following year, the Printmakers represented not only local artists but also exhibitors from other parts of the United states, as well as England and Canada. Works by conservative craftsmen such as Samuel Chamberlain and John Taylor Arms were found in the company of the current avant-garde, leading one critic to remark, "The Boston Printmakers have shown a true democracy in their latitude and what appears to be freedom from preference of favoritism for either extreme or practice".

The tradition persists today. The national biennial exhibition is open to all North American printmakers and is chosen by a distinguished juror. The media ranges widely from the traditional to digital images, monotypes, and experimental mixed-media prints. Each successive exhibition reflects the stimulating changes in printmaking that have occurred over the last fifty-some years.

The North American Print Biennial is one of the most prestigious events in contemporary printmaking. From 1954 to 1969, the exhibition was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Other hosts have included the Hayden Gallery at MIT, the Rose Art Museum, the Duxbury Art Complex Museum, the Fitchburg Art Museum the Danforth Museum, the Art Institute of Boston, the DeCordova Museum, and Boston University, whose 808 Gallery has hosted the Biennial since 1999.

With the luxury of a huge space at the 808 Gallery, The Boston Printmakers was able to expand the scope of its exhibition activities to include a show of printmaking students from New England colleges, to run concurrent with the Biennial. {With the co sponsorship of the Arches Paper Company, the arches Student Print Show was inaugurated in 1999 with the participation of more than twenty schools. This exhibition lets the public preview the next generation of printmakers, while giving these students an opportunity to exhibit with the most prominent printmakers in the country.

The Boston Printmakers, through its North American Print Biennial, members' shows, and traveling exhibition to museums, libraries, and educational institutions in the United States and Canada, reaches a large and diverse audience. This is in keeping with its original mandate "To hold exhibitions of high artistic standards and to promote interest in the graphic arts..."

Throughout its history, The Boston Printmakers has purchased and donated prints to many institutions, including Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the Duxbury Art Complex Museum, the Boston Public Library, Harvard's Fogg Musuem and the DeCordova Museum. The organization currently has a Purchase Prize honoring Ture Bengt and, in 2007 to mark its 60^th anniversary, will create a purchase prize to honor Otis Philbrick. This prize will inaugurate a new Boston Printmakers collection at an institution to be announced. Plans for the 60^th anniversary include special exhibitions of Boston Printmakers collections from the institutions above as well as the 2007 North American Print Biennial and Fifth Arches Student Print Show, and a commemorative book to chronicle the history and contributions to the world of printmaking of this vibrant group of artists.

Although it is based in Boston, The Boston Printmakers draws its membership from all parts of the United States and Canada. Membership, currently at about 300, is by jury. The Boston Printmakers, Inc. is a non profit 501(c) 3 corporation.

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