Graphic Arts

On Tuesday, October 20th, from 6-8pm, the New York City Bar Association will present

Lost and Found: A Practical Look at Orphan Works

You will hear from a diverse panel of speakers, including: Brendan M. Connell, Jr., Director and Counsel for Administration, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Frederic Haber, Vice President and General Counsel, Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.; Eugene H. Mopsik, Executive Director, American Society of Media Photographers; Maria Pallante, Associate Register for Policy & International Affairs, U.S. Copyright Office; Charles Wright, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Legal and Business Affairs, A&E Television Networks; Moderator: June M. Besek, Executive Director, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, Columbia Law School.

This free public program will be held at 42 W. 44th Street, in the Meeting Hall of the Association. Please register at: http://www.nycbar.org/EventsCalendar/show_event.php?eventid=1222

Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914), Orphans, 1878. Drypoint. GA 2006-02669

In addition, The Society of American Archivists (SAA) has issued:
Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices

a 16-page report that provides what professional archivists consider the best methods to use when attempting to identify and locate copyright holders. The statement, which primarily focuses on unpublished materials because they are usually found in archives, is available on the association website as a PDF at http://www.archivists.org/standards/.

Orphan works is a term used to describe the situation in which the owner of a copyrighted work cannot be identified and located by someone who wishes to make use of the work in a manner that requires permission of the copyright owner. Eight archivists and a recognized legal expert in intellectual property and copyright law developed the statement, based upon their experiences researching copyright status.

We created this statement to provide archivists with a framework to discover what materials they hold are truly orphaned works, and in the hopes of empowering them to provide wider access and use of those materials as a result

The primary authors of the statement include Briston (University of Oregon), Mark Allen Greene (University of Wyoming), Cathy Henderson (University of Texas, Austin), Peter Hirtle (Cornell University), Peter Jaszi (American University) , William Maher (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Aprille Cooke McKay (University of Michigan), Richard Pearce-Moses (Arizona State Library), and Merrilee Proffitt (OCLC). Financial and administrative support was provided for this project by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership. More information on SAA’s Intellectual Property Working Group can be found at: http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/ipwg/.

Congratulations to Timothy Barrett, master papermaker and paper historian, who is one of twenty-four recipients of the five-hundred-thousand-dollar “genius awards,” announced this morning by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. See more: http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/people/staff/Barrett/Barrett.shtml and the papermaking studio: http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/facilities/paper/index.shtml

Timothy Barrett, Nagashizuki: the Japanese craft of hand papermaking (North Hills, Pa.: Bird & Bull Press, 1979) Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), TS1109 .B267

Welcome Miniature Book Society to your XXVII Grand Conclave in Princeton! Collectors, artists, and enthusiasts for small print will spend four lovely days in Princeton this week, holding meetings, touring, eating, and sharing their latest treasures (under 3 inches please).

We will entertain the group on Saturday, August 29, 2009 with tours of the Cotsen Children’s Library, the Graphic Arts Collection, and the Princeton University Art Museum. Sunday afternoon is a huge book fair, which is open to the public: http://www.mbs.org/conclave.htm. If you are in the area, I recommend you drop by the fair.

Pictured above: John Taylor (1580-1653), The Thumb Bible (New York: A.D.F. Randolph & Co. …, [1889?]). 288 p. 49 x 54 mm. Facsimile reprint of Verbum sempiternum (Adomeit B89). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), 2007-0064S. Thank you for holding it Miriam.

An illustrated lecture entitled “Making Pictures for the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Artists and Publishers” will be presented by Julie Davis, Professor of Art History, University of Pennsylvania, on Sunday, May 3, 2009, at 3:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, followed by a reception in the Milberg Gallery. This event is in conjunction with the exhibition “Beauty & Bravado in Japanese Woodblock Prints: Highlights from the Gillett G. Griffin Collection given in honor of Dale Roylance” on view in the Milberg Gallery, Firestone Library, through June 7, 2009.

The Milberg Gallery is open to the public, free of charge, weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Wednesday evenings, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.; and weekends, noon to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is located on the second floor of Rare Books and Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey. For information on visiting the campus, see: http://www.princeton.edu/main/visiting

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III, 1786-1865), Chapter Thirty-four: Wakana No Jô, from the series: Parody on the Fifty-four Chapters of the Tale of Genji (Genji gojûyojô), 1858, 9th month. Signed: Toyokuni ga. Publisher: Wakasaya Yoichi. Ôban tate-e diptych. Color woodblock print (nishiki-e).

Dr. Paul Bolin of the University of Texas at Austin presented a paper entitled “Preparing Children for the World of Work: Influences of Legislation in the Proliferation of Drawing Manuals…1860-1876” at this weekend’s conference “Home, School, Play, Work.” http://www.princeton.edu/cotsen/research-collection/academic-conferences/home-school-play-work/

Bolin pointed out that Massachusetts passed legislation making drawing a compulsory subject of study within the public school curriculum in 1870, followed by Maine in 1871, New York in 1875, and Vermont in 1878. Dr. Bolin went on to remind us that it was Warner Miller (1838-1918), NY Senator and President of the American Wood & Paper Association, who pushed the legislation forward. As a result, Miller made a fortune from the increase demand in paper. Similarly in Vermont, it was members of the Burlington stationery factories who backed the legislation and received enormous profit from the increased sales of their products.

Read an abstract: http://www.princeton.edu/cotsen/research-collection/academic-conferences/home-school-play-work/bolinabstract/index.xml

Here are a few early American drawing manuals from the graphic arts collection:

Fielding Lucas (1781-1854) Lucas’ Progressive Drawing Book … Consisting Chiefly of Original Views of American Scenery… (Baltimore: F. Lucas, jun’r [c1827]) Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize NC710 .L84q

John Hill (1770-1850), A Series of Progressive Lessons, Intended to Elucidate the Art of Flower Painting in Water Colours. New ed. (Philadelphia: Published by Desilver, Thomas & Co., 1836) Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2007-0154Q

John T. Bowen (ca. 1801-1856?), The United States Drawing Book: Comprising Elements of the Art of Drawing with the Lead Pencil, Chalk, or Crayon, or with Water Colours (Philadelphia: Thomas Wardle, 1839). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize NC407 .B68q

John Gadsby Chapman (1808-1889), The American Drawing-Book: a Manual for the Amateur, and Basis of Study for the Professional Artist (New York: J.S. Redfield, 1847). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize Hamilton 493q

The Theory of Effect: Embracing the Contrast of Light and Shade, of Colour and Harmony (Philadelphia: J.W. Moore, 1851). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 841

I will be away later this week at the first meeting of the College Book Art Association. http://www.collegebookart.
org/ The CBAA supports and promotes academic book arts education by fostering the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.

Despite summer floods and winter storms, book arts survive in Iowa City and the conference offers, among other things, a great opportunity to explore the Center for the Book, an interdisciplinary arts and research unit located within the University of Iowa Graduate College. The UICB integrates the art of book production with the study of the book in society by offering a curricula in book technologies and book history.

The first CBAA biennial is entitled: Art, Fact, and Artifact: the Book in Time and Place. More information is available at the conference website: http://uicb.grad.uiowa.edu/uicb-cbaa-conference/. Along with session programming, the conference agenda will include keynote speakers, exhibits, tours of facilities, open discussion time, and portfolio reviews.

My presentation is Between the Biblia Pauperum and the Graphic Novel: A Survey of Block Books, Plate Books, and Books from Stone. It is a work in progress. I post the powerpoint images for the talk here, in case you can’t make it to Iowa. http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/
ga/cbaa.pptm

The French writer Alfred Jarry is chiefly remembered as the creator of Ubu roi (King Ubu). The play is a loose parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, presenting the characters of mother and father Ubu, who plot to assassinate the King of Poland. The first commercial production opened on December 11, 1896 at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre. But when the first line was spoken, “Merdre” (Shitter) the audience caused such uproar that it took the stage manager nearly fifteen minutes to quiet the auditorium. Those who did not walk out continued to jeer and interrupt the performance throughout the evening. For the complete French text, see: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16884.

There will be a reading from Ubu roi by Florent Masse of L’Atelier, the French Theater Workshop, and students from Princeton University’s French department on March 7, 6:00 p.m., at the Princeton University Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition “Invoking the Comic Muse.”

Jarry created his own illustrations for the published play, in particular the figure of father Ubu, with a distinctive spiral across his stomach. Since then, other artist have published their interpretations of Jarry’s notorious play, including in 1982, the Chilean artist Matta (Roberto Matta Echaurren). Born in Santiago, the young Matta spent time in Paris as an assistant to the architect Le Corbusier. In the 1930s, he became an active member of the French surrealists, who all looked to Jarry for inspiration and courage. As a sign of Matta’s appreciation to Jarry, the distinctive spiral appears in many of his paintings.

On Sunday, October 7 at 3:00, Mexican novelist, poet, and playwright Carmen Boullosa will give a talk entitled “The Struggle is on the Walls: Antecedents and Inheritors of the TGP,” in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition El Taller de Gráfica Popular / The Workshop of Popular Graphic Arts. The talk will be held in Aaron Burr Hall, Rm. 219, and is open to the public free of charge. A reception will follow the lecture at 4:00.

The Graphic Arts collection is fortunate to have acquired a small group of posters and fliers by the TGP (http://diglib.princeton.edu). A selection are on view until February 10, 2008 in the Milberg Gallery for Graphic Arts. The exhibition and associated events are made possible with the joint support of the Friends of the Princeton University Library and the Program of Latin American Studies. For more information, see http://www.princeton.edu/rbsc/exhibitions/milberg.html.