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Honolulu Printmakers
Isami Doi's 1954 gift print "Eventide" is a color wood engraving in two colors.
Printmakers might be described as the social butterflies of the art world, and the medium is the magnet around which they congregate. For while the painter, potter and carver have the luxury of working solo, the printer -- often stymied by inadequate funds -- must have the equipment -- often at the cost of a small fortune -- in order to create.
By Nadine Kam
nkam@starbulletin.com
Honolulu's printmakers have it made thanks to the foresight of a small group of printers who 75 years ago set up a community facility where they could ink up to their heart's content.
"People who get into print -- unless they're wealthy -- have to have that shared equipment," said Laura Smith, executive director of the Honolulu Printmakers. "They have to work together and make concessions to one another and clean up after themselves.
"It's not that hard," said Smith, a printmaker herself. "People learn printing in a class. They're always a part of a large group of people working together, then cleaning up the ink. It goes with the job."
With annual shows of the Honolulu Printmakers came the tradition of the gift print -- one commissioned for sale at each of the exhibitions as a fund-raiser for the organization. Included are works by artists who were already known for their work in other mediums, such as Jean Charlot, a prolific fresco muralist, children's book illustrator and teacher, and John Young, noted for his vibrant, calligraphic style of oils, which translated into his woodcut prints.
On the 75th anniversary of Honolulu Printmakers, a retrospective exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, is accompanied by a catalog, "A Tradition of Gift Prints," that documents each gift print and the artists who created them.
The list of gift-print artists includes some of Hawaii's most renowned printmakers, including Hon Chew Hee, a founder of the Hawaii Watercolor Society (formerly Hawaii Watercolor and Serigraph Society); Isami Doi, whose nature-based works comprised poetic dreamscapes; leading up to the present with Deborah Gottheil Nehmad's pyrographic images burned onto paper; and Howard Farrant's surreal take on childhood memories, a blur of good and evil utilizing etching, softground and aquatint processes.
This year's portfolio comprises five gift prints created by Nehmad, Allyn Bromley, John Koga, Wayne Miyamoto and Hiroki Morinoue, with a cover by Hans Löffel. The cost of the gift portfolio is $195.
HONOLULU PRINTMAKERS was established in 1928 by such notable artists as Huc Luquiens, A.S. MacLeod, John Kelly and Charles W. Bartlett. Beyond simply working at their craft, the artists sponsored educational workshops and demonstrations open to printmakers and the public.
Jean Charlot's 1959 gift print "Hawaiian Summer" is a color crayon offset lithograph.
The group's communal presence and nurturing of budding print artists led to Hawaii's rich history of prints, with images encompassing varied techniques, diverse subjects, changing styles, and a broad conceptual range.
Work on the show and catalog -- the latter directed by Marcia Pascua and edited by artist and former Star-Bulletin art critic Marcia Morse -- began two years ago in anticipation of the 75th anniversary, said Smith, who had the task of researching and writing some of the biographies.
Finding the vintage prints was easier than finding information about the artists.
"There were people like Donald Hardman, who had lived here just 10 years following World War II before going back to California. I couldn't find that much about him," Smith said.
"The art academy has a complete collection of prints but you have to be a certain kind of person to collect information and I think that as artists, we were more interested in the art than the information."
But there were volunteers at the academy who did manage to save newspaper articles in scrapbooks that became a valuable resource.
"The Printmakers had a studio at the art academy until the '60s so volunteers from the academy kept all the clippings for us too, and that was really interesting. They were all about the artists, mentions of who was doing a show.
Laura Ruby's 1988 screen print "Film Crew at Diamond Head," above.
"There's nobody doing that for us today. There's a box."
Smith said she found herself getting accustomed to her reporter's role, which gave her the freedom to ask questions she would not normally be able to ask, and understanding the artists' personal lives helped her see them as more human than iconic.
Of John Young, she said, "I didn't realize what an entrepreneur he was. It gave me a real appreciation of how hard an artist has to work to make art a livelihood. I'm not talking about someone who is an artist who has a teaching job.
"He would open gallery after gallery, buy and sell and make enough to travel and get visual ideas and inspiration, then paint, go and sell and paint again."
Smith also marveled over Hon Chew Hee's wood engraving, a technique being lost to modern methods, although there is talk of revitalizing the art form. She admired the artist's energy and enthusiasm.
"He started a huge number of organizations and he must have been an extremely gregarious person. He must have liked people a lot to have started all these associations.
"He was a great friend of Isami Doi who had a troubled life, and once, (Hee) went to New York to bring him home. It takes a special kind of person to do something like that."
Even as the Printmakers continue to make progress, they must combat the perception that because more than one print is made, their work is in the realm of pop, mass-marketed product, rather than art.
"A lot of what printmakers do involves a lot of work. People look at it and see a graphic image and think it's just fun. They don't see it as labor.
"It's kind of discouraging when they think it's just something they can download on a computer."
On view: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through May 4 Honolulu Printmakers
A 75th Anniversary CelebrationPlace: Honolulu Academy of Arts
Admission: $7 general; $4 for 62 and older, students 13 and older and military; free for children and academy members
Call: 536-5507
Special Events
>> Tour the Jean Charlot Collection at 1 p.m. March 23 at the University of Hawaii Hamilton Library, fifth floor. Free.>> Running in conjunction with the 75th annual exhibition through April 6 at the Academy Art Center will be "Beneath the Surface: Recent Prints," by Iris Altamira, and "Darkness and Light: Recent Prints," by Joshua Tollefson. Both artists will speak about their recent prints, created with a fellowship prize from the Laila Art Fund, at 2 p.m. March 29. Free.
>> Walk through Honolulu Printmakers Gift Print retrospective exhibition with Marcia Morse at 1:30 p.m. March 30 at the Academy of Arts. Free.
Hiroki Morinoue's 1986 "Moonlit Path" is a color reduction woodcut.
Michael Harada's 1989 gift print, "A Calm Day," is a color screenprint in eight colors.
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calendars and events.
