THE ARTIST AS RESEARCHER
EXPLORING THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S ART COLLECTIONS

February 24; April 27; May 22, 2023 | Each event begins at:10:30AM 

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New York Public Library | Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Room 215 (2nd Floor) | 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018

This free, 3-part series is designed for artists from Skowhegan and EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop who wish to open new pathways and enhance their research skills. The New York Public Library is a remarkable repository and laboratory for visual artists in all media. Learn how to find what you need! And see what inspiration and materials await with a library card. 

Each month, NYPL librarians and curators will show and present on different subjects and materials from the collections in the Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs.

We will meet at 10:30am in Room 215 on the second floor. Coffee and light bites will be provided. The tour of the collections will start promptly at 11am and go until 12pm. Space is limited! See the schedule below. 

Fluxus in the New York Public Library

Saturday, February 24 | 11:00am-12:00pm

The Prints and Photography Study Room, Room 308

Active primarily in the early 1960s to the late 1970s, Fluxus was a loose international group of artists, poets, and musicians with a shared impulse to integrate art and life. Though global in scope, the movement had a particularly strong presence in New York City. Founded by George Maciunas, Maciunas coined the name Fluxus to suggest “flow” and to describe a wide range of activities, which included scores or instructions; multiples; and concerts, performances, and “Happenings.” Fluxus works, both physical and performative, were often best characterized as having a critical attitude towards art itself rather than being overtly finished in their final state. 

Join art librarian Chantal Lee as we open up the Fluxus archive in the Art & Architecture Collection and learn more about this important movement.  

Japanese Photographs, Photobooks & Artists’ Books

Saturday, April 27; 11:00am-12:00pm

The Prints and Photography Study Room, Room 308

The history of Japanese photography is as long and rich as the medium itself, and offers the opportunity to study technical innovation and avant-garde theory alongside issues of memory, gender, and national and personal identity. The format of the photobook in Japan is especially important as a vehicle for experimental design, for collaborative expression, and for new ideas about the relationship between viewer and image. The NYPL Photography Collection contains  world-class holdings of Japanese photography, allowing for a deep, sustained survey of some of the most important and influential Japanese photobooks from the 20th century. 

Join art librarian Chantal Lee and Assistant Curator of Photography Maggie Mustard as we study Japanese photography and photobooks from the 1930s to the present moment, including Horino Masao’s Kamera : me x tetsu, kosei (Camera, Eye x Steel, Construction) (1931), Ishimoto Yasuhiro’s Katsura (1960), Kawada Kikuji’s Chizu (The Map) (1965), the avant-garde photo-magazine PROVOKE (1968-69), Araki Nobuyoshi’s Sentimental Journey (1971), and work by Domon Ken, Ishiuchi Miyako, Kanemura Osamu, and Okabe Momo, among others.  

Word & Image from the Renaissance to the Present

Saturday, June 29 | 11:00am-12:00pm

The Prints and Photography Study Room, Room 308

Join Madeleine Viljoen, Curator of Prints and the Spencer Collection, to explore how artists have navigated the complex and ever-evolving relationship between word and image in printed works from the fifteenth century to the present. Invented in the mid fifteenth century, the medium of print enabled the creation of multiple identical copies and revolutionized how information, both textual and visual, was shared and circulated. 

Tracing how artists have used images to tell stories, we will examine some of the earliest “artist books”, including the first illustrated edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the work of a Renaissance monk who is widely considered to have written one of the most enigmatic books ever created, and an unrivaled compendium of Albrecht Dürer’s three most famous books. Skipping ahead to the 20th and 21st centuries, we will look at iconic works by Tomaso Marinetti, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Broodthaers and others, thinking about how textual layout can evoke a range of sensory experience. Other highlights include works from the non-western tradition, including Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects of the Moon and Enrique Chagoya’s Ghost of Liberty.