Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California

The first goal of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, founded in Los Angeles in 1960, was to “create a pool of master artisan-printers in the United States” to revive the medium of fine art lithography. With essays by both established print scholars and new voices, this lavishly illustrated volume introduces the printmaking pioneers who nurtured an environment suitable for the founding of the country’s most significant print shop and addresses the spectacular spread of printmaking from its modern beginnings in Southern California within the larger narrative of postwar American art.  

Drawing mainly on the extensive print collection of the Norton Simon Museum, the book includes works by the local founders of the movement such as John Altoon, Garo Antreasian, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, and June Wayne as well as by artists who traveled west to print in Los Angeles such as Joseph Albers, Bruce Conner, Lee Mullican, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Rauschenberg. An accompanying exhibition, part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative, will be on view at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena from October 1, 2011, through April 3, 2012. 

Leah Lehmbeck is associate curator at the Norton Simon Museum.