Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind

A surreal garden scene shows a park covered in a large gingham picnic blanket, a ladder, chairs standing on the blanket, and trees and a fence in the background. The scene seems surreal since the colors are not natural; they are bright pink tones and in the background, the sky seems like it is burning.
Jun 17 to Oct 02, 2011

NMWA presents Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind. The exhibition features more than 40 prints made during the past five decades by artists including Polly Apfelbaum, Louise Nevelson, and Kiki Smith that demonstrate a wide spectrum of aesthetic and technical investigation and conceptual goals.

Founded in 1960 as Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, Tamarind Institute (now in Albuquerque, New Mexico) changed the canon of printmaking in 20th-century America and continues to set the standard for fine art lithography, an extremely complex and nuanced printmaking process. The organization’s mission to preserve fine art lithography and encourage artists from all media to explore its expressive potential inspired a renaissance in the dying art.

The Tamarind Institute emphasizes intimate collaborative partnerships between artist and printer and has produced prints with a range of emerging and established artists. Committed to education, Tamarind runs extensive professional training programs, organizes exhibitions and projects around the world, and publishes comprehensive materials on technique.

Twelve vertical columns, each a different color, of repeating flower, pinwheel, and starburst shapes on a white background.

Polly Apfelbaum, Rainbow Love Mountain Ranch, New Mexico, 2007; Color lithograph, 36 1/2 x 26 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Promised Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in Honor of the Artist; © Polly Apfelbaum; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Exhibition Sponsors

Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and is generously supported by the Members of NMWA.

Three you women stand together with arms around each other. They are wearing military uniforms.
Hung Liu, Sisters in Arms I (State II), 2003; Lithograph on paper, 30 x 36 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Promised Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in Honor of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; © Hung Liu; Photo by Lee Stalsworth
A lilac and red, abstract flower. The inner part in red and yellow looks like a sun, while the lilac leaves are reminiscent of mountains, stacked neatly around the sun.
Judy Chicago, Through the Flower 4, 1973; Prismacolor on paper, 24 x 24 in.; Photo courtesy of Betty Boyd Dettre Library & Research Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts; © Judy Chicago
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The Artist,

Anni Albers

Anni Albers, the most influential 20th-century textile designer, fearlessly experimented and blurred traditional boundaries between art and craft.
Black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman looking slightly to her right against a white background. Her dark, curly hair is styled neatly away from her face, and she wears a white collared button-up shirt.

The Artist,

Polly Apfelbaum

Vibrant, eye-popping color unifies Polly Apfelbaum’s wide-ranging work.
A light-skinned adult woman wearing a black zippered jacket, her pink lips parted in a smile. A royal blue, close-fitting hat covers her ears. Her right arm rests on a marble ledge. Behind her the rooftops of city buildings are visible.

The Artist,

Judy Chicago

After more than four decades, Judy Chicago continues to be an influential feminist artist, author, and educator. Her work helped establish the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s.
A light-skinned older woman with short purple-and-white hair smiles slightly, arms out to the side. She wears a blue sequin top with long black lace sleeves, a gold necklace, hoop earrings, and blue glasses. The sky and tree branches are behind her.

The Artist,

Dorothy Dehner

Award-winning sculptor Dorothy Dehner produced abstract works in various mediums.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman with short hair stands looking at a black rectangular sculpture. She wears a dark long sleeved shirt and several beaded necklaces. Both her arms are outstretched as she touches other black sculptures beside her.

The Artist,

Elaine de Kooning

Though associated with the Abstract Expressionists, Elaine de Kooning created figurative works, including portraits, for much of her career.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman. She has closed cropped light hair and is shown from the chest up. She wears a long sleeved shirt with a ruffled collar and sleeves and a large silver necklace. In one hand she holds a lit cigarette.

The Artist,

Lesley Dill

Lesley Dill, a painter, printmaker, sculptor, photographer, and performance artist with an abiding interest in language, typically works with natural materials.
Black-and-white studio portrait of a smiling light-skinned adult woman with medium-length blond hair. She wears round glasses and a black turtleneck sweater.

The Artist,

Harmony Hammond

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Harmony Hammond became well-known for her fabric-wrapped sculptures that expand conventional ideas about women’s handwork.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned, smiling adult woman in profile wearing a black Western-style hat and tank top, her white hair pulled to the side. She stands in a field of sparse grass. Behind her are two people, a rack of clothing, furniture, and distant trees.

The Artist,

Hung Liu

Hung Liu blended Chinese and Western artistic influences to explore Chinese history and culture, gender, identity, and memory.
A light-medium-skinned older woman leans her elbow against an interior marble balustrade. Her grey and black hair is pulled back, and she wears a black long-sleeve top and drop earrings, a red necklace, a red ring, and a red heart-shaped lapel pin.

The Artist,

Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson is considered one of the most important American sculptors of the twentieth century for her pioneering assemblages and monumental public art.
Black and white photo of two women by a window. One wears a black hat with a large rim and gazes at the camera. She looms over the younger woman who sits facing forward while she side-eyes the woman in the hat. The energy is tense, as if the younger woman is in trouble.

The Artist,

Miriam Schapiro

Miriam Schapiro challenged the dichotomy of “high” art, denoting the works of known, predominantly male artists, and “decorative” art, a term then used to relegate women to anonymity.
Black and white photo of a woman shot from the waist up. She rests her chin in her right hand, her right elbow propped on a table next to bottles of paint. She smiles with her whole face and her grey hair is brushed back. She wears a light blouse and large cocktail ring.

The Artist,

Hollis Sigler

Hollis Sigler created psychologically complex paintings, drawings, and prints grounded in personal experience.
A black-and-white photograph of a smiling adult light-skinned woman with dark, bobbed hair. She wears a dark high-neck garment with a large heart-shaped brooch at the neck, drop earrings, and dark eyeshadow. Behind her is a painting with two figures and a spiral staircase.

The Artist,

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith creates work that addresses the myths of her ancestors in the context of current issues facing Native Americans.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman with long dark hair, shown in full face from the chest up, standing in front of a light-colored wall. She wears large earrings and a black turtleneck top.

The Artist,

May Stevens

Artist and activist May Stevens played an active role in the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
Photo of a light skinned woman against an abstract background. Shot from the chest up, her left hand is slightly raised in a wave. Short, brown hair frames her face, her mouth slightly open. Her eyebrows are raised, as if the image was taken when she was mid-sentence.