The University Art Museum is pleased to present Carroll Dunham Prints: A Survey. Although best known for his comically raucous paintings, Carroll Dunham's commitment and contribution to printmaking have been considerable. Including over 100 prints by one of the most prolific and inventive printmakers of his generation, this exhibition marks the first museum study of this distinguished artist's graphic oeuvre.
Dunham began making prints in 1984 when Bill Goldston invited him to print at Universal Limited Arts Edition (ULAE). Since then his continued investigations into printmaking and his collaborations with a variety of printers have produced an innovative body of work that is as large as it is varied. Whether working in lithography, etching, drypoint, linocut, wood engraving, screenprinting, or monotype, Dunham embraces the careful analysis required by the graphic process and has described printing as an integral part of the way he thinks about art making.
Combining the spontaneity and drama of his paintings with the careful premeditation demanded of the print medium, Dunham's imagery is transformed, refined, and often intensified in his graphic work. In the prints, the tension between instinct and control, so integral to all of Dunham's work, is most extreme. Born of a mechanical and analytical process, the prints are startlingly expressive and explosive. Indeed it is this marriage of opposites that makes the graphic work so compelling.
Describing printmaking as being "both its own reward and a trigger for quantum leaps in the other domains" of his work, Dunham credits the medium with encouraging him to approach his paintings and drawings more analytically. Serving as a laboratory of sorts, in which new ideas are tested before migrating to another medium to be further developed, printmaking has revealed new angles of consideration and nudged the artist in new directions.
Dunham's prints not only explore the formal and perceptual possibilities unique to the printmaking process, they also serve as a key to understanding his work in all media by providing a window into the intricacies of his ever evolving artistic process.
Organized by Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. Generous support for the exhibition and publication was provided by the Strypemonde Foundation. Curated by Allison Kemmerer, Curator of Photography and Art after 1950, Addison Gallery of American Art.
This exhibition and related public programs have been made possible with support from the University at Albany's Office of the President, Office of the Provost, University Auxiliary Services, the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue raisonné co-published with Yale University Press.
For further information, please call 518-442-4035 or visit our website at www.albany.edu/museum.
MUSEUM HOURS: Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday noon to 4 pm.
Artist Walkthrough: Tuesday, February 2, 4:30 pm
Opening Reception: Tuesday, February 2, 5 – 7 pm
Art & Culture Talks (ACT) Program:
Monday, February 22, 7 pm, Lecture by Carroll Dunham
Gallery Talks:
Thursday, March 18, noon, Janet Riker, UAM Director
Saturday, April 3, noon, Corinna Ripps Schaming, UAM Associate Director/Curator
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