THE SOCIETY
OF AMERICAN
GRAPHIC
ARTISTS
LINDAADATO
AFTER DARK
Color Intalgio
2
Welcome:
Fairfield University's community of students, faculty and friends views this exhibition
with admiration and appreciation. The Society of American Graphic Artists is generously sharing
with our academic community its multiple talents and laudable achievements. While the
ever shifting tides of styles and techniques provides a visual map of art history's landmarks
from the past to the present, a good place to start is by looking at prints. As we are delighted,
confronted, and challenged by these exemplary models of contemporary American printmaking,
the enduring va.lue of the medium is honored and upheld by SAGA's versatile artist-members.
In doing so, they have perpetuated that noble, and I would like to think, magical tradition of
printmaking. In an eloquent note about his drypoint method, J.M. Whistler praised the results:
"The tiny thread of metal ploughed out of the line by the point as it runs
along, clings to its edge through its whole length and, in the printing holds
the ink in a clogged manner, and produces, in the proof, a soft velvety effect
most painter like and beautiful - and precious too ... "
We extend our gratitude . to Michael Di Cerbo who worked so diligently to realize this
exhibit and extend our thanks to the entire SAGA organization for keeping Whistler's "precious"
effects alive as well as contributing to this lega.cy with so many innovative approaches for today.
Philip Eliasoph
Professor of Fine Arts
Gallery Director
For 79 years SAGA has presented the finest standards of creative expression in North
America. We proudly continue SAGA's mandate of advancing the interest ofprintmakers and
printmaking. With this Members Exhibit we bring to the public a national overview of printmaking
today, This show includes examples of the varied media used by contemporary printmakers.
The variety of statements does not reflect one particular trend or style; but individ-
1Jal concerns, techniques and experimentation.
This exhibition required considerable effort. SAGA is proud to present this selection
from its membership, and we thank Dr. Philip Eliasoph and Fairfield University for helping
to support this exhibition.
Michael Di Cerbo
President
The Society of American Graphic Artists
3
MICHAEL ARIKE
RKO
Color Aquatint
4
-
1'
-
I
I
1'
KATHLEEN CARACCIO
PASSAGES 345
Etching Collage
5
SUSAN CARTER-CARTER
WATER GLIDE
Monotype with color pencil
6
ANN CHERNOW
THE OLD PIANO ROLL BLUES
Etching/ aquatint
7
About SAGA
SAGA, The Society of American Graphic Artists, is a not-for-profit national
organization of fine art printmakers. SAGA has a rich history. Its, origins
stretch back to the early 1900's when a group of printmakers founded the
Brooklyn Society of Etchers in 1915. The following year, their first exhibit was
at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952 and several name changes later, the Society
adopted its present' title to reflect the all-inclusive membership which practices
a full range of printmaking processes.
Henri Matisse, Kaethe Kollwitz, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Pablo
Picasso, Mary Cassatt, Joseph Pennell, John Marin, Childe Hassan, and John
Taylor Arms were early exhibitors of SAGA. 'Over the years the membership,
has included most of America's foremost printma~ers. Membership in the
Society enab~es artists to show their work in New York City through important
exhibitions with substantial awards. Many purchase awards have
become a part of major museum collections in the United States.
SAGA has also been sponsoring international exhibitions since 1916. Other
activities include traveling exhibitions. These have been shown in a number
of museums and universities in America and have, an occasion, circulated
worldwide under the auspices of the U.S. Information Agency.
SAGA has long reflected the growth and changes taking place in printmaking
as well as the transformation of the larger world of art. The high standards
of The Society of American Graphic Artists are still perpetuated in the
quality national exhibitions which continue to expose the public to the best of
American printmaking.
8
MICHAEL DI CERBO
SPIRES
Intalgio
9
RICHARD DORIAN
ROOFTOPS
Woodcut print in red
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10
GAIL COHEN-EDELMAN
STRETCH
Etching
11
JOESEPH ESSIG
VERMONT LA. II
Etching
12
.. .. ,
FRANKLIN.FELDMAN
ERATO
Carborundum etching with chine colle
13
KATHLEEN GALLAGHER
EXCHANGE PLACE, N. Y. C.
Etching
14
GORDAN GILKEY
CACOVIII
Computer assisted viscosity
I:
15
STAN KAPLAN
HURRICANE
Color linocut
16
Saga Alive and Well
One of the senior artists' associations in America, The Society of American
Graphic Artists (SAGA) has its origins in the Brooklyn Society of Etchers
founded in 1915. The Society has been active from its1nception to this date,
having organized over sixty-five national print shows an addition to international,
traveling and exchange exhibitions.
In order to better appreciate the significance of SAGA's age, it must be kept
in mind that the history of artists' associations is a relatively short one that
does not go back further than the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
One of the oldest organized groups of artists was the British Etching Club,
founded in 1838. A closed circle, the club never exceeded sixteen members,
who joined for purely artistic purposes.
The French Society of Etchers or Societe des Aquafortistes was founded
twenty-four years later, but its purpose was commercial rather than artistic.
Organized by the publisher Alfred Cadart, the Society initially consisted of
fifty-two members who were encouraged to regularly supply Cadart with etchings.
The publisher, in return, developed a list of subscribers who received a
monthly print for a standard fee- a sort of print-of-the-month club. Cadart's
business venture lasted only five years, from 1862 to 1867, but it contributed
to a revival of etching in France that would last through the end of the nineteenth
century. It was in France that a number of American expatriate artists
such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt learned and
became enamoured with the etching technique.
As far as org~nization and purpose is concerned, SAGA was modeled neither
on the British Etching Club nor on the Societe des Aquafortistes but on
another French art association called, rather unimaginatively, the
"Cooperative Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc." The purpose of
this society, better known as "the Impressionist group," was to organize exhibitions
of the works of its membership. Thus it was il). first instance a practical,
business-like organization intended to share the expenses of group shows
among its various members.
Artists' societies and clubs organized along the impressionist model became
popular in the later part of the nineteenth century, not the least among printmakers.
In America, the oldest graphic arts ass.ociation was the New York
Etching Club, founded in 1877 to promote printmaking as a fine art form, both
among artists and the public. Until then printmaking in America had been
17
!.
I!
considered a "useful" technique, aimed at the reproduction and popularization
of images. Engraving, lithography, and wood engraving were used for the
reproduction of works of art (Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington, for
example), for popular images (Currier and lves prints), and for.the book and
magazine illustrations. It is not surprising that etching became the preferred
technique among those who promoted the notion of printmaking as a fine art
form. On the one hand it was least suited to industrial usage and therefore
lacked the ·association with popular and commercial imagery; on the other
hand it had been used by many of the most famous graphic artists of all times,
such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacques Callot, and Francisco Goy a.
The Brooklyn Society of Etchers was organized in imitation of the New York
Etching Club. Its founding members were Troy Kinney, Eugene Higgins, Fred
Reynolds, Paul Roche, and Ernest Roth, who was the society's first president.
The group's maiden exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum featured 197 etchings
by sixty-five artists. Included among the exhibitors were such well-known
artists as John Taylor Arms, Frank W. Benson, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam,
John Marin, and Mahonri Young. By its second year the Society had twenty ..
seven artist members and 135 associates. The latter were patrons of the society
who, in return for their dues, received a print by one of the member artists
each year.
During the first fifteen years of its existence, the membership of the
Brooklyn Society of Etchers tripled. Its annual exhibitions, held in the
Brooklyn Museum, grew from 197 prints in 1915 to 462 in 1931. In 1922 the
society organized its first international exhibition (in the Anderson Galleries
in New York), which included the works of several major European and
American artists such as Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, ·Edward Hopper,
Wilhelm Lehmbruch, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, and
John Sloan.
As the membership of the society increasingly came from places outside
Brooklyn, it was decided in 1931 to change is name to the Society of American
Etchers, Inc. Henceforth the exhibitions were no longer held in the Brooklyn
Museum but in the National Arts Club in New York. The growing membership
included several artists who made their reputation in the 1930s, including
Isabel Bishop, Minna Citron, Kenneth Hayes, Stanley Hayter, John Sloan and
Reginalrd Marsh. During the thirties several new initiatives were taken. One
of these was exhibit exchanges with European print clubs; the other, the organization
of special miniature print sections in the annual shows.
18
In 1942, the society moved its annual exhibitions to the National Academy.
Thanks in part to increased space, the exhibitions grew until, in 194 7, the
society organized the largest show in its history, consisting of 658 prints.
Increasingly, these prints were done in techniques other than etching, such as
woodcut, wood engraving, and lithography. This prompted the third renaming
of the society in 194 7, when it came to be called the Society of American
Etchers, Gravers, Lithographers, and Woodcutters, Inc. Five years later, even
that name was found to be not sufficiently inclusive and the current name
Society of American Graphic Arts was adopted.
In the course of SAGA's existence, printmaking has gone through many
changes. Perhaps the most important among these is the shift from what we
might all "hand" prints to decorative wall prints. The etchings that were produced
during the early years of the Brooklyn Etching Club were not primarily
intended to the framed and hung on the wall but rather to be kept in a portfolio
to be looked at alone or with friends in leisurely fashion. (Anyone familiar
with the work of the French nineteenth-century artist, Daumier will
remember his images of print collectors, who lovingly leaf through their portfolios
to admire the prints they contain.) Today prints are produced in first
instance to be framed and hung. This means that they are generally larger
and that there is more emphasis on color. Neither color nor large formats are
easy to achieve in etching but several newly invented printmaking techniques
lend themselves well to meeting those requirements. Indeed, the introduction
of serigraphy (silkscreen), collography, and various mixed media techniques is
another major exchange that has taken place in American printmaking since
1915.
A final change concerns style and form. Printmaking has, of course, gone
through the same changes as all other art and has witnessed the birth of nonobjectivity,
of surrealism, etc. A study of the catalogues of SAGA's exhibitions
reflects these changes but it also shows SAGA's openness to all styles. In this
respect the Society has always followed the precept of its longtime president
John Taylor Arms (1931-47) who felt that SAGA should represent all techniques
and styles in order to represent a true cross section of contemporary
printmaking.
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
Department of Art and Music
Seton Hall University
19
i
,I
SHIAO-PING LIAO
GATE OF SPRING
Serigraph
20
MASAAKI NODA
A POINT OF CONTACT
Silkscreen
I.
21
RICHARD PANTELL
IN THE EAST VILLAGE
Intaglio
22
MERLE PERLMUTTER
ASCENDING MEMORY, DIMISHING DREAMS
Soft ground mezzotint
23 i
I I
FLORENCE PUTTERMAN
BIRD, HAND & MAN, SERIES I
Lithograph
24
ORIGINAL PRINTS ON EXHIBIT
LINDA ADA TO:
AFTER DARK
Color intaglio
9 X 12"
1993
SILENT MOVIE
Color intaglio with hand coloring
24 x16"
1992
URBAN CASTLES
Color intaglio
15 1 /2 X 19 1 /2"
1990
MICHAEL ARIKE
CORNER WINDOW
Color aquatint
16 X 20"
1992
RKO
Color aquatint
16 X 20"
1992
SEPTEMBER MORNING
Color aquatint
16 X 20"
1990
KATHLEEN CARACCIO
PASSAGES #326
Etching collage
18 X 24"
1993
------- --·· -------- --- 1,:1
II:'
KATHLEEN CARACCIO
PASSAGES #311
Etchings collage
21 1/2 X 30"
1993
PASSAGES #345
Etching collage
19 X 23 1/2
1993
SUSAN E. CARTER CARTER
WATERGLIDE
Monotype with colored pencil
19 X 26"
1992
' MESA VIEW
Monotype
8 X 12"
1992
GANSETT SWIMMER
Menotype
7 1/2 X 10"
1989
MICHAEL Dl CERBO
25
STRUCTULITE
Intaglio
28 1/2 X 14 1/2"
1992
SPIRES
Intaglio
12 3/8 .X 5 5/8"
1993
FLURESCE
Intaglio
12 X 14 7/8"
1993
I~·. ,.
I
il I
' ,_ 'L '1,','
,II·
SHELLY THORSTENSEN
FIXED FIRE
Intaglio, relief, chine colle
26
ANN CHERNOW
AS I WAS SAY'N' TO THE DUCHESS
Etchings/aquatint
143/4x8"
1993
THE OL' PIANO ROLL BLUES
Etching /aquatint
11 3/4 X 8 7/8"
1991
GUESS WHO I SAW TODAY?
Etching/aquatint
7/12/ X 9"
1992
RICHARD DORIAN
RCOFTOPS
Woodcut print in red
19 1/2 X 15"
1992
THE LITHOGRAPHY STUDIO
multi-colored woodcut
153/4x16"
1985
. THE PAINTER
multi-colored woodcut
91/2 X 11 3/4"
1986
GAIL COHEN EDELMAN
EARTH, SKY AND SEASCAPE
lntalgio
24 X 30"
1987
INSIDE-OUT
Etching
18 X 24" 1987
ORIGINAL PRINTS ON EXHIBIT
GAIL COHEN EDELMAN
STRETCH
Etching
18 X 24"
1987
JOSEPH ESSIG
HILLSIDE, COLUMBIA COUNTY
Etching
18 X 36"
1990
VERMONT LA. II
Etching
10 X 16"
1990
VERMONT WEATHER
Etching
22 X 30"
1989
FRANKLIN FELDMAN
27
ERATO
Carborundum etching with chine colle
14 7/8 X 9 15/16"
1989
CELEBRATION
Carborundum etching with chine colle
12 X 9 15/16
1990
NOCTURNE
Carborundum etching with chine colle
14 3/4 X 1 0"
1990
II
EMILY TRUEBLOOD
CITY DUSK III
Woodcut
28
KATHY GALLAGHER
EXCHANGE PLACE, N.Y.C.
Etching
19 3/4 X 17 1 /2" 1985
BETHESDA FOUNTAIN
Etching/aquatint
16 X 20"
1983
THE BRIDGE, CENTRAL PARK
Etching
16 X 20"
·1983
GORDON GILKEY
CACOV II
Computer assisted viscosity
11 X 15 1/2"
1993
CACOV Ill
computer assisted viscosity
11 X 15 1 /2" 1993
STAN KAPLAN
HURRICANE
Color Linocut
ro x 16"
1990
T. JEFFERSON
Linocut
18 X 12"
1992
SHIOU-PING LIAO
GATE OF SPRING
Serigraph
22 X 30"
1992
ORIGINAL PRINTS ON EXHIBIT
SHIOU-PING LIAO
RENDEZVOUS IN A GARDEN
Serigraph
24 X 30"
1991
MASSAKI NODA
RE-ENTRY
Siklscreen
22 X 30"
1989
INDUCEMENT
Silk Screen
30 X 22"
1990
A POINT OF CONTACT
Silk Screen
22 X 30"
1993
RICHARD PANTELL
29
IN THE EAST VILLAGE
lntalgio
19 5/8 X 15 5/8"
1988
NO, IT REALLY ISN'T VERY FUNNY
Etching
6 X 7"
1983
NOT OF THIS TIME
Lithograph
13 3/4 X 18 1/2f'
1987
KAREN WHITMAN
LUNCH
Drypoint
30
ORIGINAL PRINTS ON EXHIBIT
MERLE PERLMUTTER
FROM ANOTHER ROOM
lntalgio etching
26 X 18"
THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER
lntalgio etching
18 X 26"
ASCENDING MEMORY, DIMISHING DREAMS
Soft ground mezzotint
18 X 26"
FLORENCE PUTTERMAN
BIRD, HAND & MAN, SERIES I
Lithograph
22 X 30"
1986
ENCOUNTER AT SEA
Woodcut
22 X 30" 1992
THE YEAR OF THE COMET
Woodcut
31 X 40"
1987
SHELLEY THORSTENSEN
FIXED FIRE
lntalgio, Releif, Chine Colle
1994
OTHER PEOPLES NAMES
lntalgio, Releif, Chine Colle, Screenmint
1994
DA MAGG DONE
Intaglio, Pochoir, Chine Colle
1994
EMILY TRUEBLOOD
CITY NIGHT
LINOCUT
10 X 16"
1990
CITY DUSK Ill
Woodcut
16 X 20"
1992
CITY DUSK
Woodcut
16 X 20"
1986
KAREN WHITMAN
LUNCH
Drypoint
4 1/2 X 4 1994
BODEGA
Drypoint
4 1 I 4 X 3 1 /2 1994
103rd St.
Drypoint
8x6
1993
STEVEN YAMIN
PROJECT 77
Intaglio - Stencil
9 X 9" 1983
PROJECT 78
lntalgio- Stencil
9 X 9" 1989
PROJECT 79
lntalgio- Stencil
9 X 9"
1993
31
STEVEN YAMIN
PROJECT 79
Intalgio- Stencil
32
Special Event Programs
