"Through a Papermaker's Eye" at the Grolier Club
Through a Papermaker’s Eye: Artists’ Books from the Dieu Donné Collection of Susan Gosin, opening at the Grolier Club’s second floor gallery on April 26, showcases thirty-five years of collecting and creating limited edition books featuring the unique aspects of hand papermaking, such as watermarking and pulp painting as well as exquisite, custom designed, sheets of paper. The books and art displayed reveal the distinct partnership between print and paper and include unique work by artists such as Chuck Close and William Kentridge, poets such as Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Symborska, papermakers such as Timothy Barrett and Elaine and Donna Koretsky and printer/publishers such as Walter Hamady and Claire Van Vliet.
Susan Gosin is the co-founder of Dieu Donné, a non-profit artist’s workshop dedicated to the creation, promotion, and preservation of contemporary art utilizing hand papermaking, a process that has its roots in the long tradition of American handicrafts. The medium emerged from the International Arts & Crafts movement through its American representative, Roycroft Studios, in the first half of the twentieth century. American artists such as Dard Hunter, Elbert Hubbard, Stanley William Hayter, and Douglas Howell are legendary for bridging the craft and fine art of papermaking so that the medium and its message became indistinguishable.
From these early efforts, workshops spread throughout the U.S., creating opportunities for artists. By the early 1960s paper was established as a material of choice for artists. Because paper, unlike other materials, lends itself to a broad cultural milieu, it was particularly ripe for the diversity inherent in American culture. This renewed desire for experimentation in papermaking prompted co-founders Sue Gosin and Bruce Weinberg to open Dieu Donné in 1976, one of a few pioneer papermills in New York City and the U.S.
Today, Dieu Donné is among the hundreds of hand papermills and print shops across the country dedicated to the creation handmade paper. By adapting existing techniques from other media and inventing new methods, Dieu Donné has collaborated with artists of every political, cultural and stylistic persuasion to explore uncharted territory according to their own working strategies in painting, sculpture, installation, unique and editioned paper works, and artist books. Significantly, this collaborative approach has become a reciprocal process enabling the artists to benefit from each other’s knowledge and working methods while blurring the boundaries of previously discreet artistic categories such as painting and sculpture.
For thirty-five years Gosin has collaborated with artists on two and three-dimensional art in hand-made paper and has published numerous limited editions of fine artists’ books. Through a Papermaker’s Eye: Artists’ Books from the Dieu Donné Collection of Susan Gosin, offers a rare glimpse into some of the most significant artworks created during her unique and legendary career.
LOCATION AND TIME: Through a Papermaker’s Eye, will be on view at the Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, from April 26 through June 8, 2012, with the exception of May 31, when the Club is closed. The exhibit will be open to the public free of charge, Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Additional information and directions are available at www.grolierclub.org.
CATALOGUE: A checklist of the exhibition will be available at the Grolier Club.
FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS AT THE GROLIER CLUB
May 15 - July 28, 2012. Aaron Burr Returns to New York: An Exhibition on Burr and His Contemporaries.
Sept. 11 -Nov. 17, 2012.In Pursuit of a Vision: Two Centuries of Collecting Americana at the American Antiquarian Society.
Dec. 4, 2012 - Feb. 2, 2013. From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599 - 1850
Visit the Grolier Club website: www.grolierclub.org
Susan Gosin is the co-founder of Dieu Donné, a non-profit artist’s workshop dedicated to the creation, promotion, and preservation of contemporary art utilizing hand papermaking, a process that has its roots in the long tradition of American handicrafts. The medium emerged from the International Arts & Crafts movement through its American representative, Roycroft Studios, in the first half of the twentieth century. American artists such as Dard Hunter, Elbert Hubbard, Stanley William Hayter, and Douglas Howell are legendary for bridging the craft and fine art of papermaking so that the medium and its message became indistinguishable.
From these early efforts, workshops spread throughout the U.S., creating opportunities for artists. By the early 1960s paper was established as a material of choice for artists. Because paper, unlike other materials, lends itself to a broad cultural milieu, it was particularly ripe for the diversity inherent in American culture. This renewed desire for experimentation in papermaking prompted co-founders Sue Gosin and Bruce Weinberg to open Dieu Donné in 1976, one of a few pioneer papermills in New York City and the U.S.
Today, Dieu Donné is among the hundreds of hand papermills and print shops across the country dedicated to the creation handmade paper. By adapting existing techniques from other media and inventing new methods, Dieu Donné has collaborated with artists of every political, cultural and stylistic persuasion to explore uncharted territory according to their own working strategies in painting, sculpture, installation, unique and editioned paper works, and artist books. Significantly, this collaborative approach has become a reciprocal process enabling the artists to benefit from each other’s knowledge and working methods while blurring the boundaries of previously discreet artistic categories such as painting and sculpture.
For thirty-five years Gosin has collaborated with artists on two and three-dimensional art in hand-made paper and has published numerous limited editions of fine artists’ books. Through a Papermaker’s Eye: Artists’ Books from the Dieu Donné Collection of Susan Gosin, offers a rare glimpse into some of the most significant artworks created during her unique and legendary career.
LOCATION AND TIME: Through a Papermaker’s Eye, will be on view at the Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, from April 26 through June 8, 2012, with the exception of May 31, when the Club is closed. The exhibit will be open to the public free of charge, Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Additional information and directions are available at www.grolierclub.org.
CATALOGUE: A checklist of the exhibition will be available at the Grolier Club.
FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS AT THE GROLIER CLUB
May 15 - July 28, 2012. Aaron Burr Returns to New York: An Exhibition on Burr and His Contemporaries.
Sept. 11 -Nov. 17, 2012.In Pursuit of a Vision: Two Centuries of Collecting Americana at the American Antiquarian Society.
Dec. 4, 2012 - Feb. 2, 2013. From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599 - 1850
Visit the Grolier Club website: www.grolierclub.org
