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Early
WSU printmakers’ works on display
By
Julie Rausch and Lisa Fleetwood
During
the 1950s, American colleges and universities expanded art programs
to include printmaking. The University of Wichita, as WSU was known
then, was in the forefront of this trend and has since produced
and collected hundreds of student printmaking works.
Some
of those works will be on display starting Dec. 1 in the Ulrich
Museum of Art.
"The
Emprise Bank Collection Multiple Personalities: 1954-1970"
is a companion to WSU’s alumni exhibition, also opening in
the Ulrich Museum of Art Dec. 1. Both run through Jan. 27.
The
Emprise collection contains a variety of Kansas art. Part of that
collection now includes about 70 recently acquired prints from WSU
printmaking alumni.
"Multiple
Personalities" showcases 27 intaglio and collagraph prints
produced between 1954 and 1970 by some of David Bernard’s students.
In intaglio printing, the printing plate has an image carved into
or beneath the plate’s surface. With collagraphs, a relief
plate is made by building textured material, such as foil, glue,
string, sandpaper and the like, onto a backplate.
"There
was a big upsurge of students after World War II," says Kevin
Mullins, Ulrich Museum curator of exhibitions.
A lot
of the country’s printmakers were trained here, led by Bernard,
who joined the faculty in 1949 and developed a printmaking degree
program, says Mullins.
"Through
the years it’s been the custom that at the end of every semester,
the program director will exchange work with their very best students,"
says Don Byrum, School of Art and Design chair. "Since the
students already produce multiples, it’s no problem to make
one more print to leave with the (director). My guess is that about
700 works were collected over the years."
Bernard,
and later his successor John Boyd, kept this personal collection
at the School of Art and Design, using it as a teaching collection.
Emprise
president Mike Michaelis says what drew him to the prints was the
quality and the historical significance of WSU’s alumni printmaking.
"They
are extraordinary," Michaelis says, adding that some people
have commented that they are astounded by the quality of work from
the artists who were in their early 20s at the time the works were
created.
"It’s
significant to note that many of the WSU alumni went on to teaching
careers, influencing other young people to become artists,"
Michaelis says.
To
acquire the prints, Emprise made a $10,000 donation to the printmaking
program. The gift was used to purchase two new lithopresses, replacing
two that were nearly 40 years old, Byrum says.
"Bernard’s
program was originally based on intaglio printing, a process he
mastered under Maurcio Lasansky at Iowa University," says Jim
Johnson, a WSU School of Art and Design alumnus and curator of the
Emprise collection.
"He
also, however, championed the introduction of collagraph printing
to the academic curriculum, a relief process that was largely perceived
as inferior by other academic printmakers.
"Bernard
realized the creative potential of the process and encouraged his
students to produce collagraphs. He has been nationally recognized
for his efforts in this area."
Bernard
retired from WSU in 1983 as professor emeritus of studio arts and
lives and works in Florida. Boyd, his successor as printmaking program
director who’s been at WSU for nearly 30 years, mixes similar
printmaking methods and explores many new techniques.
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