International Print Acquisitions 1985 – 1989

There are three main ways in which works of art can be acquired by the Department of International Prints and Illustrated Books — by purchase from the annual acquisitions budget, by gift and by bequest.

Although the Federal Government continues to provide funds for the annual acquisitions budget, the fluctuating and often downward-moving dollar means that all too often it takes more and more money to buy fewer works of art. The Department has therefore worked out a program of thematic exhibitions that can be partially furnished from existing holdings, but to which new funds can be directed each year in order to fill significant gaps in the collection.

Buying to furnish such specific shows requires the curator to look neither to the left nor to the right, avoiding impulse purchases and working with an agreed list of desiderata in mind where major, expensive acquisitions are concerned. But it is also necessary for the Department to keep abreast of the developments of the 1980s and to represent the best prints produced in our own time; this means always being ready to consider work that falls outside thematic concerns and does not play a part in filling historical gaps.

Printmaking flourished in the 1890s, and our holdings from this period have been expanded with very important prints by Edvard Munch and Pierre Bonnard, some exquisite lithographic posters by Alexandre Lunois and 'Misti', a group of beautiful lithographs by Henri Fantin-Latour, a rare book of colour lithographs by the Hungarian József Rippl-Rónai and a group of illustrated theatre programs by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Edouard Vuillard and Antonio de la Gandara. A future exhibition at the Gallery will be devoted to prints, as well as works in other media, from this period. Other recently acquired outstanding colour lithographs from the 1890s are Louis Anquetin's horses galloping to the finishing post, Armand Guillaumin's portrait of one of his children, and Maximilien Luce's lithograph of a child sitting in a Vernon orchard. A wonderful set of Daumier caricatures produced for the journal Le Charivari have helped to expand our holdings of this important early nineteenth-century artist.

Among complete suites of prints acquired by the Department is an innovatory album of lithographic impressions, which Jean Dubuffet created by inking and printing from mundane surfaces — such as soil and skin — for his monumental series Phenomena, and the freely drawn wash lithographs of 1970 by Willem de Kooning, which were sold to us by the artist's printer. Other major twentieth-century artists' prints that have been added to the collection include some witty lithographic frottages by Max Ernst, two etchings from Wassily Kandinsky's Kleine Welten series, a late woodcut by Franz Marc — who was previously unrepresented in the collection — and a woodcut by Käthe Kollwitz.

Recent prints purchased from funds allocated for contemporary works include a suite of screenprints and drypoints by Jonathan Borofsky, and works by Francesco Clemente and Sandro Chia. The Director devoted part of his annual allowance to the purchase of David Hockney's colour xerox prints. To produce these prints, the artist installed three Canon photocopiers in his Los Angeles studio, and experimented with the copying process by drawing textures on a master copy, which was then used to overprint several different colours. He was particularly fascinated by the quality of a black when it was printed twice. Since the technique can only be used on a small sheet size, he made his larger compositions from tessellations of several sheets mounted together. The Director's budget was also used to acquire two colourful woodcuts by Chuck Close and Wayne Thiebaud. Closely supervised by the artists, Japanese woodblock craftsmen working for Crown Point Press developed these prints using watercolours designed specially for the purpose.

Contemporary prints purchased from the Department's own allowance include two prints by Richard Hamilton featuring Irish 'dirty protest' prisoners. Both prints make inventive use of technology: one is based on a photogravure, the other on a dye transfer print seamlessly put together by laser. Other recent acquisitions include a number of prints made by Helen Frankenthaler at the New York State studio of the American printer Ken Tyler; a large black and gold monoprint by the contemporary American artist, Karen Erla, who creates unique compositions by inking various blocks and freely combining multiple impressions to build up a seductive surface; and a very large and dramatic triptych by Mimmo Paladino — Sirens, evening, Western poet — which is concerned with a world of mystery and sacrifice, and demonstrates a masterly use of a variety of intaglio techniques, including brushing acid freely on the plate.

The most important book purchased from the Department's own funds is the Transrational Book by Ol'ga Rozanova, unusually illustrated with colour linocuts and rubber stamps. Copies of this work are very rare, and the Department has long sought a copy as an essential addition to our extraordinary holdings of revolutionary Russian material.

Members of the Department are particularly grateful for the increasing number of gifts that have found their way into the collection through the generosity of a number of individuals. Last year, Dr Frances Burke offered us a suite of lithographs made in England in 1953 by forty artists who celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth Il by depicting the most colourful aspects of the event.

In memory of her husband Felix, Mrs Lieselott Man presented the Department with some important books and a splendid Expressionist woodcut by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, made in 1919 but not editioned until 1975, when it was published by Man in a European print portfolio.

Two donors — Mr G.W. Glenwright and Mr John Roper — have helped increase Australia's representation of the important English painter and graphic artist, Stanley William Hayter, who died last year and who was undoubtedly the most influential intaglio printmaker of the modern period. Another rare treasure was sent to us by Rosina Feldman, widow of the American artist Eugene Feldman; his triptych Neagle's view of Venice was made by playing inventively with an offset press after his day's work as a commercial printer was done.

Our longest-standing benefactor, however, is Dr Orde Poynton, who in three years' association with the Gallery has not only presented us with a wonderful collection of the famous Kelmscott Press books produced by William Morris in the 1890s, but in three successive annual donations has provided a total of $110,000 to buy illustrated books of our own choice for the collection. As a result of his great knowledge and love of books, Dr Poynton became consulting bibliographer at the Baillieu Library of Melbourne University after his retirement from medicine, and donated thousands of printed works to that institution. Because of his familiarity with individual volumes, Dr Poynton is the ideal donor. We have only to write to him about our intention to acquire a particular book, for him to send by return his advice that we should watch out that we do not get the 3rd edition of 1844, because the title page is prone to foxing!

Last year Dr Poynton agreed that part of his donation should be spent on the acquisition of a major bound folio of the exquisite hand-coloured lithotints entitled Original views of London as it is by Thomas Shotter Boys. During the three-year period in which he has helped the Department to expand its collection of books, several outstanding items have extended its range. Among these are some beautiful Symbolist books illustrated by Alphonse Mucha, Odilon Redon and Georges de Feure, as well as important titles from the earlier part of the nineteenth century illustrated by Gavarni, George Cruikshank and J. J. Grandville. Two children's books illustrated by Arthur Rackham — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, the latter accompanied by some presentation plates on a larger scale — represent important developments in improved methods of colour reproduction at the turn of the century. Books interpreted by twentieth-century painters include two beautiful volumes produced by The Limited Editions Club — Ulysses and Lysistrata, with etchings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso respectively — as well as such titles as High Street, lithographed by Eric Ravilious, Benito Cereno, with stencils by Edward McKnight Kauffer, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is embellished with grey-green copper engravings by David Jones. Perhaps the most significant group of books bought with Dr Poynton's donations, however, has come from the Private Press Movement in England between the wars. This period was unrepresented in our collection before Dr Poynton came to our aid. The Department can now boast such wood-engraved masterpieces as Eric Gill's Four Gospels and The Song of Songs, Paul Nash's Genesis, Eric Ravilious's The Writings of Gilbert White of Selborne and Blair Hughes-Stanton’s Epithalamion.

Pat Gilmour

Text source from: Gilmour, Pat. International Print Acquisitions 1985-1989 : Gallery 4A 13 May to 15 October 1989. Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1989.