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November 14 through January 4, 2005 UPPER GALLERY Bolton Brown: Master Printmaker Guest Curator: Neil Trager, Director Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz Wednesday, December 1, 2004, 4:30 pmBolton Coit Brown (1864 - 1936) was a remarkable man, driven by a single-minded obsession to excel at and master whatever he undertook to accomplish. This determination and ambition first manifested itself during his undergraduate and graduate studies at Syracuse University, and later in his position administering the art program at Stanford University in California (1891-1902), where, in addition to his fame as a teacher, he earned national recognition as a skilled mountaineer. It was one hundred years ago that, on behalf of Ralph Whitehead, a wealthy Englishman who was seeking to establish a utopian arts and crafts community, Bolton Brown left California in search of the perfect location. Poet Hervey White soon joined Whitehead and Brown, creating the triumvirate of utopians that would eventually establish the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony in Woodstock, New York. Brown's Byrdcliffe affiliation was destined to be short-lived. Disappointed in Whitehead's vision for Byrdcliffe, Brown left in October of that year. Settling in Woodstock where he built a house on property that Whitehead sold him, and it was there, in the town, rather than on the cloistered mountain side, where the story of Brown's career as an artist unfolds. Although primarily known for his paintings, which he exhibited on a regular basis, Brown developed a deep interest in printmaking, specifically lithography, which he pursued in a single-minded way from 1915 - 1925. He approached lithography with what is best described as a missionary zeal and with the specific intention of resurrecting in America the long-revered European tradition of expressive printmaking. Brown's investigation into lithography eventually led to his authoring two books on the subject, inventing formulas for more than 500 crayons, and developing more than 50 different techniques to prepare stones. His formidable knowledge of the craft and his expertise as a printmaker led to historic collaborations with George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Arthur B. Davies, Albert Sterner, John Taylor Arms and others. His research and formidable skill would provide these artists with control over the medium heretofore not available, and resulted in a unique and unprecedented flourish of expressive printmaking in America. |
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