Cross-Cultural Connections (or How I Learned Why I Love Art History): Review of the Sac State Art History Symposium

The Festival of the Arts is a week-long conjunction of events celebrating art at Sac State. It is easily the best time of the year to be an art lover at Sac State because the week is jam-packed with art exhibits, museum events, and guest speakers dealing with art from different styles and across the globe. Quite fittingly, this year marked the 10th Annual Festival of the Arts Art History Symposium, in which five art historians were invited to discuss the topic: "Cross-Cultural Connections in Printmaking". Each speaker brought a different story to tell from the long history of printmaking, and what I thought was going to be just another interesting art discussion, turned out to be the event that finally put my place in the art world into perspective for me.

Keynote Address:
Kathan Brown
"Crown Point Press: An Insider's Perspective"

The symposium started with a look at the Bay Area's Crown Point Press studio through the eyes of its founder, Kathan Brown. Since the 1960's, Crown Point Press's mission has been to teach artists the process of printmaking as a tool to enhance their art. Kathan has had the opportunity of working with some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art, including Wayne Thiebaud, John Cage, Chuck Close, Laura Owens, and Julie Mehretu. She modestly claims that it is the artists who direct the art, and that the printmakers are just there to aid and follow their commands. What I enjoyed most about her lecture was the video clips she brought of the artists going through their unique processes of experimentation with their prints. Rarely does one get to see the thoughts and expressions that the artist makes while creating. Despite new advancements in technology, Kathan remains hopeful that Crown Point Press will continue to produce prints and tell amazing stories of the artists who worked there.

Unclosed (2007)

by Julie Mehretu

color hard ground etching with spit bite aquatint and drypoint

Mehretu focuses on line; the longer you 

look at it, the more colors become visible.

John Byck
"The Ship Engravings of Master W with the Key as Cultural Crossroads"

The lectures now moved from well-known artists in the modern Bay Area, to an anonymous figure in 15th century Europe. Ph.D. candidate John Byck examined the ship engravings attributed to Master W, an artist likely serving in the court of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Master W's ornamental prints were pre-cursors to the ship portrait genre made popular in the Dutch Republic, thus making him an influential figure in the history of printmaking. It is very interesting to think that all we know about the artist is the monogram he used to identify his work, and yet we still consider him an influential figure in European art, much like we do with prehistoric cave painting and statuettes. Master W's story really makes me think about all the untold and undiscovered artists who could have made an impact if given the chance.

Ship with Sails Furled and Arrow Pointing to the Right (1475-1485)

by Master W

engraving on paper

It remains uncertain whether his prints 

influenced contemporary Italian works or vice versa.

Pamela Ivinski
"The Unexpected Created of Arabesques: Mary Cassatt's 1890-91 Color Prints and the Decorative Devices of Japanese and Islamic Art"

The most cross-cultural lecture given that day went to Pamela Ivinski, as she argued for the influence of both Japanese prints and Arabesque designs in the work of famed female artist Mary Cassatt. Specifically looking at her set of ten prints from 1890-1891, Pamela noted Cassatt's overseas travels (a common sign of international inspiration in art) to produce prints alongside the European Impressionists. As Cassatt developed the feminist undertones that brought her much attention and criticism, a clear connection with Kitagawa Utamaro's prints (which were very influential to the Impressionists) was evident. Less obvious, Pamela pointed out, was the influence of patterns in Arabesque art seen in the fabrics and backgrounds of Cassatt's female figures. The presence of the patterns prevents the female figures from being lost in their backgrounds, as women were in society. Cassatt's rejection of the association of women with eroticism made her, like her female figures, a true standout.

Mother's Kiss (1891)

by Mary Cassatt

drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

Cassatt's technique and subject matter is shared with 

Japanese prints, while her designs match those of Arabesque art.

Mother Nursing a Child Before Mirror (1753-1806)

by Kitagawa Utamaro

woodcut print

Arabesque Designs from the Red Fort in Agra, India (1565)

inlays on red sandstone

Louise Siddons
"At Once Strong and Delicate: Uncovering the Contradictions of Cross-Cultural Modernity in a Painted Photograph by Bertha Lum"

Next to speak was Louise Siddons, who looked at the troubled life of American printmaker Bertha Lum. Lum is best known for her ability to transfer photography to woodblock, a process that mirrored her abandonment of Western culture for that traditional Asia. After marrying her husband, the couple traveled to Japan and China at the turn of the twentieth century, where Lum developed a love for the art printmaking. Unfortunately, this love came at a time when the land was being invaded by the West and plunged into world conflict. Lum blamed the West for the modernity that was sweeping over China's beautiful traditions. She was a misplaced soul who had finally found her true home, only to have it ripped away by demons she had tried to leave behind. Nevertheless, her art succeeded in bringing Western attention to the beauty of Asian prints.

O Yuki The Frost Fairy (1916)

by Bertha Lum

woodblock print

Her art displays the talent of someone 

born too late in the wrong place.

Mary Goodwin
"Printmaking in Los Angeles and the Role of Maria Sodi de Ramos Martinez"

Much like John Byck's speech on Master W, the final lecture dealt with an unknown artist who unknowingly set the stage for future artists to follow in her footsteps. Mary Goodwin's interest in Depression era Los Angeles stemmed from her childhood curiosity of a painting by Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez hanging in her home. What she believed to be an original turned out to be one of the 12,000 print copies made by Martinez's wife, Maria Sodi. Following Alfredo's death, Maria Sodi set out to keep his memory alive by learning silkscreen from Guy Maccoy in LA and reproducing Alfredo's paintings in massive amounts. While making these prints, Martinez would reteach the process to the much more well-known artist Sister Corita Kent, who in turn, retaught the process to other Chicano artists, and so on throughout the twentieth century. Despite her lack of recognition in the art world, Martinez's efforts to make her husband's art available to the masses, as well as passing down the technique to other artists, make her a key figure in the transition of Latin American Arte Culto ("fine art") to Arte Popular ("Art of the People").

La India de los Floripondios (c. 1932)

by Alfredo Ramos Martinez

silkscreen reproduction by Maria Sodi de Ramos Martinez

One has to admire the devotion Maria had to her 

husband to have made 12,000 prints of his works.

Is there more to these stories than the retelling of the lives of key printmakers? Of course. This symposium ultimately showed the role that printmaking played throughout history as a link between multiple cultures and worlds. Whether these artists were looking for recognition (like Cassatt or Lum) or doing it for someone else (Crown Point Press, Master W, or Martinez), they all managed to build connections between distant lands, from the past to the future, and from one artist to another.

Still, I have now come to the realization that the things that draw me to the subject of Art History are the stories behind each art work and artist. Something happened in these people's lives that influenced their decisions to create their art, and I absolutely love hearing about them. Even if we know little about someone like Master W, we can speculate that his decision to create art was more than arbitrary. These fascinating stories ultimately form the master narratives of art like the one here about cross-cultural connections. I now wish to make hearing and interpreting these stories an integral part of my life.

The 10th Annual Festival of the Arts Art History Symposium 
"Cross Cultural Connections in Printmaking"
CSU Sacramento Mariposa Hall 1000
Saturday April 12, 2014. 1-5 pm.