Brand X Editions: Innovation in Screenprinting

The creative and collaborative history of vanguard printmaking studio and publisher Brand X

Winner of IPPY Gold Medal 2026
 
Brand X, founded in 1979 as a screenprinting laboratory in New York City, fosters creative collaborations in which paper, ink, and a seemingly endless variety of ideas coalesce through the cooperative alchemy of artists and master printers working under the direction of founder Robert Blanton. This book tells the story of the firm’s evolution as a publisher and producer of screenprints and the many emerging and established artists who have worked in its studio, including Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, Rashid Johnson, Alex Katz, Joel Mesler, Adam Pendleton, and Mickalene Thomas, among others.
 
The book offers an introduction to the history of “artistic” screenprinting in the United States; the role of the medium and its status during the printmaking boom of the 1960s and 1970s; an interview with Robert Blanton and his partner at Brand X, David DeSanctis; and a look into the technical magic of artists, chromists, and printers, illustrated with spectacular color reproductions of more than 150 prints.
 
Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Philadelphia Museum of Art
(July 3–November 9, 2025)

Louis Marchesano is the Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and Emily Friedman was the Suzanne Andrée Curatorial Fellow, both at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.