November–December 2014
Globalization at 500
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We are pleased to announce that the November–December 2014 issue of Art in Print is out now.
Globalization is often discussed as if it were something new, rather than the bulked-up version of age-old exchanges. The globalization of visual culture began in earnest when European adaptations of Asian print and paper technologies met Portuguese navigation techniques in the 16th century. The depiction and distortion, understanding and misunderstanding that ensued have been with us ever since.
This issue of Art in Print looks at conversations between New World and Old, East and West, North and South, over the course of five centuries.
Evelyn Lincoln examines the first books printed in Arabic–illustrated Christian gospels produced by the Medici Oriental Press in 1590–91 to convert Arabic-speaking infidels. Robert Del Bontá follows religious imagery going the other direction: engravings of Vishnu made in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Christina Aube charts the road from European curiosity to European imperialism through maps, books and board games, while the recent Gauguin exhibition at MoMA, reviewed by Calvin Brown, affirms the disconcerting truth that bad anthropology can make great art.
In the contemporary world travelling images both enrich and encroach on local identities in ways both inventive and destructive. The Chilean artist Lorena Villablanca, discussed by Carlos Navarrete, merges regional Lira Popular and the European art historical canon in wildly subjective combinations. Nairobi-born, Brooklyn-based Wangechi Mutu speaks with Zoe Whitley about printed matter as a vehicle of ideas and of action. The playful Ukiyo-e Heroes project, described by Andrew J. Saluti, brings together three centuries of Japanese print tradition and four decades of video game design. And in Stella Ebner‘s Cartier Window (2014), selected by Faye Hirsch as the winner of this issue’s Prix de Print, the New York window of a French company shows Asian leopards and African diamonds, framed in the Nordic pagan fir boughs we use to mark a Christian holiday.
Exhibitions in this issue:
David Hockney‘s retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery is reviewed by Julia Beaumont-Jones; Faye Hirsch examines the Ed Ruscha print show at Gagosian Gallery. Yona Friedman‘s artist’s book and exhibition are reviewed by Laurie Hurwitz, while Elleree Erdos looks at the celebration of three New York-based master printers at Planthouse. The Left Front, reviewed by Jaclyn Jacunski, and What May Come: The Taller de Gráfica Popular and the Mexican Political Print, reviewed by John Murphy, document vital decades during which artists saw themselves as international beings, printing locally for the global good.
Also in this issue
–Listings: new editions
–Listings: new books and catalogues
–Calendar of print exhibitions and events
–News of the print world
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