The Saint Louis Art Museum announces Prints of Gerhard Richter, an exhibition of seven offset lithographs from the Museum's collection produced by influential German artist Gerhard Richter between 1967 and 1972. The exhibition complements other works by Richter and his contemporaries in the featured exhibition The Immediate Touch: German, Austrian and Swiss Drawings from St. Louis Collections, 1946–2007, on view through September 7 in the Main Exhibition Galleries.
The lithographs featured in the exhibition are based on Richter's own photographs of seascapes and urban architecture. The artist draws the viewer into these prints through their apparent factuality as photographic images, yet complicates attempts to read them through elements of manipulation, such as blurring and juxtaposition. By discreetly disrupting the coherence and legibility of photographic imagery, he draws attention to the slippery relationship between image, object and reproduction and to our own processes of perception. He chose to utilize offset lithography—a photo-mechanical process—to heighten the matter-of-fact appearance of the works and conceal his involvement in their execution.
Curated by Eric Lutz, assistant curator of prints, drawings and photographs, Prints of Gerhard Richter will be on view in Gallery 321 through September 14, 2008.
The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation's leading comprehensive art museums with collections that include works of art of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes and European and American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th-century German art.
The Museum offers a full range of exhibitions and educational programming generated independently and in collaboration with local, national and international partners. -- www.stlouis.art.museum
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#1 Offset Lithographs can -never- be a "Photo Mechanical Process"
Dear Mr. Tuzik:
In your article you write: "{Gerhard Richtor} chose to utilize offset lithography—a photo-mechanical process."
If I may correct you on a common misconception about what constitutes an offset lithograph, much less lithographs.
Lithographs are an original works of visual art created by an artist that would never be referred to as a "photo-mechanical process."
That factual perspective is confirmed by U.S. Customs regulations, U.S. Copyright Law, statutory law and independently documented definitions.
For example, under U.S. Customs regulations, a lithograph must be "wholly executed by hand by the artist" and "excludes any mechanical and photo-mechanical processes."
Therefore, at best, Gerhard Richtor created and manipulated photographs that were printed on an offset lithograph press resulting in his original photographic artwork.
An offset lithographic press is a tool. How that tool is used determines what comes out of it. If an artist draws on a plate and prints their artist-drawn image on an offset lithographic press the result is an original works of visual art ie. lithograph. If an artist uses an offset lithographic press to print their photograph, the result would be a photograph. On the other hand, if anyone reproduces artwork using an offset lithographic press, the result are reproductions.
To learn more about what constitutes a true lithograph and the historic abuse of the term; lithograph, link to: http://garyarseneau.blogspot.com/2008/05/currier-ives-lithograph-lie-over-168.html
In closing, I hope the enclosed empowers the public, the museum industry, artists and the art community to become connoisseurs of the artwork they may create and/or exhibit, much less sell.
Respectfully,
Gary Arseneau
artist, creator of original lithographs, scholar & author
gwarseneau(at)hotmail.com