Boston Print Fair, Peeling Off From Fall Tradition, Does Just Fine

BOSTON, MASS.

:Twenty-one print dealers gathered in the Boston Public Library did a brisk business at the recent Boston Print Fair. The ranks of area collectors and dealers were swelled by the presence of the thousands of attendees of the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums, as many of them found their way to the fair between scheduled events.

The New England Print Fair, now in its seventh year, traditionally has been an autumn event conducted in tandem with the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. It was thought that the 21-dealer print fair was a little lost up against the 135-dealer book fair and a decision was made to separate the two. On its own, the print fair did just fine and dealers were pleased.

This year's event took place in two rooms of the venerable McKim Building of the Boston Public Library, itself the holder of a major print collection. Recently renovated after a devastating flood, the space, on the lower concourse of the library, lent itself easily to a print fair. The library setting was conducive to studying and buying and much of both occurred. The self-contained site was removed from the hubbub of library traffic. It allowed visitors the time and space to seek out all the dealers and to make careful examination of prints that interested them. The fair was co-produced by D. Roger Howlett of Childs Gallery and Commonwealth Promotions, both of Boston.

David Allen Fine Art of Arlington, Va., specializes in prints of the South and prints of America between 1900 and 1950. Among the offerings in his booth were "The Trains that Come, The Trains that Go," an image of Penn Station in Philadelphia by Joseph Pennell; Hans Frank's 1928 "Peacock;" and a fine "Southern Magnolia." A compelling 1954 work by Federico Castellan of women at work at a switchboard sold just after it was photographed for this story.

Susan Maasch who operates Susan Maasch Fine Art of Bangor, Maine, showed a few Picasso prints, but the concentration of her offerings was works from the 1970s on. Some of those were so brightly hued that they leapt right out of her booth. Picasso's "Jeux de Pages" was of high interest, but the most attention fell on William Bailey's prints of traditional ceramic bowls and jugs.

Boston's Childs Gallery offered a cross-section of the gallery's usual selection - a range of prints from Old Master works, such as a Durer last text edition, to mid-Twentieth Century pieces.

Childs Gallery has launched the new website, Raisonne.org, which offers full cataloging of prints according to artist, thus providing documentation of the work of the printmakers who have never had catalogs of their own. The site is open to off-site editing and is open to suggestions about additional subjects.

Egenolf Gallery of Burbank, Calif., specializes in colorful Japanese woodblock prints ranging in date from the early Eighteenth Century to the mid-Twentieth Century. One standout was the circa 1930 "Rouge" image depicting a woman applying lipstick by print that was signed "Kotondo" (Torii Kotondo). Others included several traditional ukiyo-é prints by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka from about 1866 and a good selection of prints from Hiroshige's "53 Stations of the Tokaido Road" from the 1830s.

European prints are the specialty of Stanford, Calif., dealer Joel R. Berquist who brought a wide selection that stirred interest among fairgoers.

Wycombe, Penn., dealer Kay Lopata filled a booth with images of "Belle Epoque pretty ladies and dogs" and they were a big hit. The booth was consistently full of visitors.

Paramour Fine Arts of Franklin, Mich., offered a selection of Twentieth Century prints that drew a line of potential buyers to the booth. Robert Gwathmey's 1944 color silkscreen "Across the Field" was a standout, and James McNeill Whistler's 1861 etching of "Old Hungerford Bridge" was one exception to the Twentieth Century rule. A concentration of evocative images from the 1930s and the World War II period drew even more attention.

New York City dealer Paul McCarron offered some highly entertaining Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century English caricatures, including several by the most eminent practitioner of the art, James Gillray. They included the 1795 "Patriotic Regeneration" and the 1807 "British Tars Towing the Danish Fleet into the Harbor" and were on view cheek by jowl with Old Master prints by such masters as Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Kiechel Fine Art of Lincoln, Neb., offered works from the estate of John Steuart Curry, including "The Ne'er Do Well." Other artists' work on view included Wayne Thobaud's 1979 color lithograph "Six Italian Desserts" and "Frankie and Johnnie," Thomas Hart Benton's 1936 drawing. Speaking by telephone after the fair, Beth McKeown of McCarron's reported good results, noted that the location was good and said she was very pleased with the event.

Mashpee, Mass., dealer Edward T. Pollack offered lithographs of New York City by Joseph Pennell, a Childe Hassam print, "The Old Toll Bridge," and a Venetian view by Axel Herman Haig. An unusual 1948 presidential campaign poster promoted the candidacies of Henry A. Wallace for president, Glen Taylor for vice president and Rockwell Kent for Congress.

Pollack also showed a 1926 photograph of Claude Monet in a straw hat by Nickolas Muray that was signed by Monet.

Two map specialists filled the walls with captivating examples. Boston Rare Maps, of Southampton, Mass., showed maps of New England and the Northeast. White Plains, N.Y., exhibitor Rare Antique Maps Forum offered an entire wall of maps of Ireland, along with antiquarian maps of Europe.

Conrad R. Greaber Fine Art came from Riderwood, Md., with a selection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American, British, European and Japanese prints and drawings.

Of particular interest to local buyers was the circa 1940 etching by Elias M. Grossman, "The Old and New Boston." In between helping customers, Graeber said he was having a "good show."

Galerie Canelle from Dearborn, Mich., specialized in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century prints and drawings with some Old Master works as well. The booth was one of the busiest throughout the event.

Boss Fine Art of Wellesley, Mass., had an eclectic offering that included a circa 1929 chalk drawing by Donald Deskey, a head of Robert Frost frontispiece by Ruzicka and "Le Grand Decolletage" an Art Deco-ish pochoir print by George Barbier.

Rudolf Bauer's circa 1939 "The Holy One" held center stage in the middle of the wall of images on the wall of the booth.

New York City dealer Gary Bruder filled his booth with colorful Toulouse-Lautrec prints side by side with works by Picasso and Chagall. The draw was irresistible.

Gargoyle Gallery of Boston specializes in prints from about 1850 to World War I. Dealer Tom Clemens was pleased with the fair, saying, "It's a nifty show for me." Indeed it was. His booth was crowded with buyers interested in such works on view as Hugo Gellert's 1933 "Karl Marx X," a Harry Steinberg image of a man against a red background and an Abraham Walkowitz self portrait surrounded by images of Isadora Duncan in the background.

Woodstock, Vt., dealer Steven Thomas specializes in woodblock prints and brought along a most interesting selection. He showed work by Blanche Lazelle, Elizabeth Colwell, Jane Berry Judson, William Seltzer Rice and Arthur Wesley Dow, all in elegant oak frames.

For information, www.BostonPrintFair.com.