Singular impressions
Subtitle: the monotype in America
By: Joann Moser.
Contributors: National Museum of American Art (U.S.)
Publisher: Published for the National Museum of American Art by Smithsonian Institution Press; Smithsonian
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Washington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: Monotype (Engraving), American
Description: The first comprehensive survey of the monotype in America, Singular Impressions discusses the work of more than one hundred artists who, attracted by the medium's intimacy and freedom, made prints ranging from the romantic, pastoral landscapes of Bostonian Charles Alvah Walker to the Savarin-can "self-portraits" of Jasper Johns.

Whether created as a brief fling with the technique by John Singer Sargent or as a sustained exploration of its subtleties by Maurice Prendergast, monotypes have attracted countless artists who usually work in other media.

Describing how artists invented new methods and variations on the basic process, Joann Moser analyzes the role of the monotype in the "Black and White" exhibitions of New York's Salmagundi Club, at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and in 1920s artists' communities from Provincetown to Taos.

It was not until the 1970s that the monotype emerged as an alternative to the technical, structured enterprise that printmaking had become. Recognizing no rules or boundaries, artist pushed the previous limits of the medium to create a richer, more complex, more versatile means of expression.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-209) and index.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, organized by the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and presented from April 4 to August 3, 1997.