Fundraiser for Nepal: prints by Richard Wagener

Richard Wagener - Durbar Square, Patan, 2011
woodcut - 35 x 22.25 in. (paper: 41.5 x 30 in.) Edition of 24
On April 25th, 2015, only a few weeks ago, Nepal was hit by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

California printmaker and book artist Richard Wagener has published two woodcut editions with Magnolia – Durbar Square, Patan and Kathmandu Alley (both 2011) – depicting scenes from his visits to Nepal.

In the wake of the recent tragedy, Wagener and Magnolia Editions will now donate 75% of all sales of these two prints to the nonprofit Direct Relief, currently working in Nepal to provide access to doctors and other much-needed assistance to refugees and survivors of the quake.

Richard Wagener - Kathmandu Alley, 2011
woodcut - 34.75 x 21 in. (paper: 41.5 x 30 in.) Edition of 28
Marked by dramatic passages of rich, deep blacks and Wagener's gently modulating, highly textural line work, these woodcuts draw you in quietly, summoning the meditative atmosphere of areas in Kathmandu which unfortunately may never look the same as when Wagener captured them only a few years before.

Wagener’s striking large-scale editions were hand printed on a Takach etching press in traditional black relief ink; the surfaces of the plywood block matrices were incised by a combination of computer-guided laser etching and hand carving by the artist.

For pricing and availability, please contact Magnolia Editions today – and thank you for helping us to support the people of Nepal!

New Editions: Don Ed Hardy

Don Ed Hardy - Turner, 2014
woodcut with acrylic. Image: 37 x 27 in. Paper: 44 x 30 in. Edition of 33
Don Ed Hardy's new editions Cosmo and Turner practically crackle and spill off the page with energy and movement. In both prints Hardy finds a harmonious balance between the deep blacks of a woodcut relief print and airy, painterly washes of acrylic color.

"The dragon and the tiger are traditionally the natural primary symbols of Heaven and Earth, yin and yang," Hardy says. The artist has a lifelong interest in such imagery: as a pre-teen in the early 1950s, he would savor souvenir artworks sent back by his father from Japan. In the early 1960s, Hardy's studies of Taoist and Buddhist texts became the cornerstone of a wide-ranging artistic practice that has since brought him international renown in the worlds of tattooing and fine art.

Turner, named for one of Hardy's heroes, the painter J.M.W. Turner, "is based on a thumbnail sketch I did of an ancient sculptural detail in India four years ago," he explained by email earlier this year. "I had never used a contrapposto pose in any of the hundreds of tigers I’ve done over the years in various mediums. The flaming pearl represents wisdom and truth in Buddhist tradition."

Don Ed Hardy - Cosmo, 2014
woodcut with acrylic. Image: 37 x 27 in. Paper: 44 x 30 in. Edition of 33
The dragon, Cosmo, is named "for a very exuberant puppy who we got recently; as I was completing the piece, I realized the image exuded the manic energy and excitement of the dog." While the dragon is painted in a more traditionally Japanese style, he writes, "the rocks surrounding the tiger are based on Korean folk art paintings and serve to balance the circular vortex energy in the waves around the dragon. Likewise, I wanted a different, 'calmer' color scheme around the tiger: flatter, quieter."

Hardy painted the designs for Cosmo and Turner using black sumi ink; his paintings were transferred to a wood block matrix by a combination of laser and hand cutting and printed in black relief ink on an etching press. Hardy's hand-painted acrylic washes were then scanned, registered, and printed in UV-cured acrylic ink under the artist's supervision. Cosmo and Turner were printed by Nicholas Price and Tallulah Terryll at Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California in an edition of 33.

While their symbolism runs deep, the immediate, appealing energy of these prints is more physical than cerebral: their intensity is easily felt, regardless of one's knowledge of Eastern traditions. Hardy's compositions seek the essence of heaven and earth, and as Shakespeare says in Hamlet, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy."

Ramos Superheroines Up Next

Mel Ramos - Superman, 2014. 37 x 26.75 in. Edition of 30
The response to Mel Ramos's Superman and Batman woodcut/acrylic editions has been tremendous!

Revisiting some of his earliest Pop Art paintings and released only four months ago, Ramos's superhero prints proved to be especially popular with his European audience; only seven sets were acquired by American collectors, while the rest were speedily dispatched overseas.

The Sacramento-born Ramos lives and works in Oakland, where he is equally well-loved: a Batman print donated to Flourish, an annual art auction held locally to benefit the Oakland Art Murmur organization, sold before auction at a price well over retail.

Mel Ramos - Batman, 2014. 37 x 26.75 in. Edition of 30
Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth credits the artist's commitment to broadening the scope of his practice, as well as the innovative hybrid techniques perfected by the staff at Magnolia: "Having worked with Mel for twenty years," Farnsworth says, "he has been consistently fearless in diving in to tapestry, digital/analog print combinations, and the variety of mad science experiments he is presented with at Magnolia."

Farnsworth also points to the unusual intersection of content and technique from multiple generations that coalesces in Superman and Batman. "In these prints," he explains, "we're using an Old World woodcut matrix – but the content is classic Pop Art, and the artist is using digital-age tools to manipulate the composition and direct the cutting of the wood block."

Judging from the extraordinary response to these editions, Ramos's heroes are still able to profoundly affect their audience more than half a century since Ramos decided to paint his favorite comic book characters in 1962 and Pop Art was born.

Magnolia Editions and the artist also donated a Superman print to San Francisco's M.H. de Young Museum, which in 2004 acquired the iconic 1962 canvas upon which Superman (2014) is based:

Mel Ramos - Superman, 1962. Oil on canvas. 45 x 32.5 inches

“It is the most historically significant Pop Art painting in our permanent collection,” noted de Young Curator of American Art Timothy Burgard in this excellent 2012 magazine profile of Ramos.

Besides signaling the beginning of Pop Art, Ramos's early superheroes also marked an important transition in the artist's subject matter. Once the de Kooning-inspired abstractions of his art school days gave way to the unambiguous figuration of Superman and Batman, it was only a matter of time (less than a year, in fact -- cf. 1962's Phantom Lady and Wonder Woman) before Ramos began painting superheroines, which ultimately led to the colorful female nudes for which he is best known.

Accordingly, the artist is currently working on a new set of woodcut editions that will revisit the superheroines of his Pop Art past. Stay tuned to this blog for details, or sign up for the Magnolia Editions mailing list.

For more details on the Batman and Superman woodcut editions, please see this press release:

New Editions: Woodcuts by Mel Ramos

Mel Ramos - Superman, 2014. 37 x 26.75 in. Edition of 30
Following the Mel Ramos retrospective that traveled across seven major European museums in 2010-2011 to celebrate Ramos’s 75th birthday and on the occasion of Batman’s 75th birthday this year, it seems only fitting that Magnolia Editions revisit the iconic superhero paintings that started Ramos on the road to becoming one of Pop Art’s most recognizable figures.

Mel Ramos - Batman, 2014. 37 x 26.75 in. Edition of 30
The artist worked closely with Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth and Bay Area realist painter and frequent Magnolia collaborator Guy Diehl to develop the wood block matrices and the corresponding layers of acrylic color for each print. Ramos is well known for his color lithograph editions (a 2006 lithograph revisited Superman) but these prints represent an unusual and bold move toward woodcut — a very different print medium and one which Ramos had rarely explored before this project.

Detail view of the woodblock matrix for Superman
For full details about the production of these two new editions, please read the press release at Magnolia's website:

More art by Mel Ramos at Magnolia Editions

New Hung Liu editions

Hung Liu - Madame Shoemaker, 2012. Jacquard tapestry, 56 x 72 in. Edition of 12.
Chinese history has always been the essence of Hung Liu’s work: raised in Beijing during Mao’s Great Leap Forward and trained in the Social Realist tradition, Liu now uses painting as a means to reanimate historical photographs. “I hope to wash the subject of its exotic ‘otherness,’” she writes, “and reveal it as a dignified, even mythic figure.” Liu’s tapestry Madame Shoemaker finds the exalted and the serene in a forgotten moment from the first half of the 20th century, revealing the beauty and heroism in the labors of an anonymous woman from China’s past.

Like many of Liu’s works, this tapestry edition is based on a painting which was in turn based on a historical photograph: in this case, a scene of women from a village in the Chinese countryside, who made shoes, clothing, and other supplies for anti-Japanese fighters during the second World War. For Madame Shoemaker, Liu singled out one of the women, finding a personal connection: “Making shoes for your family is a Chinese tradition,” explains Liu, “my grandmother made shoes for me when I was young: I remember watching her slowly make each part by hand from a tough, strong hemp and sewing them together, little by little.” The artist likens this activity both to a meditative state and to the practice of making art in general: putting time in day by day, slowly accumulating work to see a project through to completion. The woman depicted thus becomes an avatar both for Liu herself and for the universal power of feminine creativity and strength.

The tapestry’s title, explains Liu, was inspired by the butterflies surrounding the figure; these colorful creatures are based on traditional Chinese paintings of butterflies on silk from the 10th and 12th centuries, and reminded the artist of the opera “Madame Butterfly.” However, Liu is quick to point out that her Madame is “more blue collar, stronger and happier” than that opera’s helpless, tragic heroine. She is demure, but no less strong and significant than the soldiers who will receive the shoes she makes: “It’s important to remember when looking back at the war,” says Liu, “that there was not just a ‘band of brothers’ but also a whole band of sisters standing behind them.”

Hung Liu - The Lifter, 2012. Woodcut with acrylic, 23.25 x 34.75 in. Edition of 25.
Magnolia also recently published two editions of woodcut prints with acrylic, The Lifter and The Reader, which may initially surprise Liu enthusiasts with their unusual line quality and pictorial simplicity but which deserve a closer look: there is more going on than first meets the eye. Liu based these innovative works on imagery from illustrated patriotic stories in the xiaorenshu, or Chinese picture books, that she read as a child and which she likens to the Dick and Jane primers supplied to American children in the 1950s.

Hung Liu - The Reader, 2012. Woodcut with acrylic, 23.25 x 34.75 in. Edition of 25.
Exhibited as part of Liu's "Happy and Gay" show at Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, the imagery in these prints is "at once charming and eerie," says the exhibition's press release: "Seen from an historical perspective, the propaganda angle strongly supplants the fable or entertainment factor." Incorporating her extraordinary sense of color and signature brushwork via layers of printed acrylic, Liu adds a dimension of historical inquiry and bittersweet, even ironic reflection to the crisp woodcut lines and straightforward, storybook imagery of the xiaorenshu: these works "can be understood, in part, as homage to all the artists who lost their art to propaganda during China's revolutionary epoch."

Liu's exhibition "Happy and Gay" is on view at Rena Bransten Gallery through January 12, 2013.

Press release for Madame Shoemaker (PDF, 408Kb)

More art by Hung Liu at Magnolia Editions

New Hung Liu edition

Hung Liu - Winter Blossom, 2011
Woodcut with acrylic; 23.25 x 23.5 in. (32.25 x 29.75 in. sheet)
Edition of 25
In Winter Blossom, Hung Liu uses the latest in hybrid digital-analog printmaking technology to summon a mysterious and beautiful figure from China's imperial past.

The face wreathed by plum blossoms and crowned with a tasseled headress in Winter Blossom belongs to Imperial Concubine Zhen Fei, popularly known as "the Pearl Concubine," who died in 1900 at the age of 24.

A lively and independent woman, Zhen was the favorite consort of the Emperor Guangxu, and encouraged his attempts at reform and his interest in foreign languages. The story goes that Zhen also invited foreigners into the Forbidden City to indulge her interest in photography, which explains the extant photographs of Zhen – unusual for an Imperial Consort (and, according to Liu, mostly faked).

Unfortunately, Emperor Guangxu's modernizing attempts to reform China angered the country's de facto ruler, Empress Dowager Cixi. When it was revealed that Zhen had supported the Emperor's coup attempt against the Empress in 1898, Zhen was imprisoned.

Two years later, as the Court fled an invasion of the Forbidden City, Zhen was summoned from prison to meet with Cixi. In a move of backhanded concern, the Empress Dowager ordered that the Pearl Concubine throw herself down a well behind the palace, rather than suffer the fate awaiting her at the hands of invading soldiers. The story is especially unreliable after this point; no one can say for sure how Zhen passed – only that she died during the invasion.

As with the many colorful figures from this period to appear in Liu's work, the historical record of Zhen's life and death is not necessarily to be trusted; over time, legendary tales have assumed the veneer of truth, and many dubious photographs have appeared posthumously. It is fitting, then, that Liu would combine two media to create a print with a shifting surface, wherein Zhen's face is seen as an apparition, partially masked by the black lines of the woodcut.

In fact, Liu based her print on a photograph which historians agree is the actual Zhen – although here again, things are not quite what they seem. "She looks very beautiful," the artist told me, "but the photo is very highly touched up, almost artificially rendered, to the point that it has become a surreal image." Liu added: "Her tragic life makes it even more mysterious."

The artist's sympathy for this unique and forward-thinking young woman is evident throughout Winter Blossom's composition. The ghostly trace of a butterfly sits atop the red tassel on Zhen's headdress (such tassels indicated one's rank in the Imperial court). The branches which encircle her face, Liu explains, are "a certain kind of plum that blossoms in the cold, with flowers like translucent wax." These plum blossoms symbolize both a resilience against the cold and a tragic evanescence. "I offer this image," says Liu, "as a tribute to a short-lived woman about whom we still know very little."

Winter Blossom is a hybrid of two processes, incorporating both traditional and unorthodox printmaking techniques. The image was first cut into a block of wood using a laser, after which further edits were hand-carved by Hung Liu. The woodcut was printed on a Takach etching press using traditional black relief ink; all of the colors in each print (digitally manipulated by the artist) were then registered and printed using a UV-cured acrylic inkjet printer.

Winter Blossom is a limited edition of 25; please contact Magnolia Editions for pricing and availability.

More art by Hung Liu from Magnolia Editions

New William Wiley edition

New woodcut edition by William Wiley, 2011
Magnolia Editions printers Nicholas Price and Tallulah Terryll have finished pulling a new edition by William Wiley.

Based on a watercolor, this print combines a woodcut printed in black ink with acrylic color applied via Magnolia's UV-cured digital inkjet printer.

The limited edition of 30 will be sold by the Oxbow School in Napa as a fundraiser; for more information, please check their website in the coming months.

More artwork by William Wiley from Magnolia Editions

Tsunami

Rupert Garcia - Tsunami, 2011
Woodcut with acrylic; 13.75 x 36.25 in. (Paper 29.75 x 41.75 in) Edition of 16
Rupert Garcia’s Tsunami combines one of the most venerated traditional printmaking techniques, the woodcut, with the precision and boundless color possibilities of the digital age.

The work has antecedents in Garcia’s iconic Frida Kahlo woodcut of 2002 and the many mixed-media works he has produced at Magnolia Editions in subsequent years, as demonstrated in the recent “Rupert Garcia: the Magnolia Editions Projects 1991-2011” exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum.

Garcia’s work is often topical, taking inspiration from contemporary events or drawing connections between historical figures and situations. Here his imagery evokes the Touhoku earthquake and tsunami which devastated eastern Japan in 2011, the most destructive natural disaster in the country’s history.

You can read more about both the content and the creation of this edition in the Press Release on Magnolia's website.

More art by Rupert Garcia at Magnolia Editions