Tamarind Residency
Tamarind Institute residency workshops between artist and printers are the basis for a conversation on the shared creative language through interdisciplinary partnerships. Since 1960, Tamarind Institute has shaped the field of collaborative printmaking, through a unique printer training program and an educational mission to preserve and advance the creative medium of lithography.
Homage to Lithography
The quote Richardson pondered in the first week at Tamarind is from the introduction to “Tamarind homage to lithography” by Virginia Allen, Museum of Modern Art 1969:
“This relationship between artist and printer which inevitably develops at Tamarind is poetry itself, evolving out of mutual need and respect. The artist must learn to communicate his aesthetic needs, even if he knows nothing about the technical language of lithography. The printer must be able to translate an artist’s individual requirements into ink densities, etch strengths, and rolling patterns, being careful never to cross the fine line that separates technical advice from aesthetic interference. At some point in the collaboration, the artist finds it unnecessary to complete sentences because the printer understands, and the printer no longer needs to ask questions because he has learned to anticipate the artist’s needs. The printer has become, not merely a tool of the artist, but an extension of his hands, his eyes, and his thought processes. Tamarind artists have eloquently described this very special relationship.”
Though Allen’s quote is to be taken as a compliment, Richardson stated, “The printer’s goal is not simply to be a perfect cockpit for the artist. I found true collaboration between myself and the printers I worked with, which requires all participants give up something. In collaboration, all parties spend time in a vulnerable position. This is true learning. I’m grateful to Jesse Wood, Perry Obee, Brandon Gunn, Valpuri Remling as well as the other printers, and staff at Tamarind who all played a hand. The prints that came together were not my own. I stepped aside and let the circumstances, printers and mediums run away like a cargo freight loaded with my stolen paintings.”
More on Tamarind
Today Tamarind is a nonprofit workshop occupying a freestanding building on the original Route 66, with a state of the art workshop, public gallery, and regular public programs and tours. Tamarind has an extensive archive of historic vast print inventory of 8000 lithographs produced by the workshop. Tamarind Institute stimulates research, preservation of knowledge, and community among a diverse international following. This unique program is widely credited with revitalizing the creative medium of lithography, and continues to provide the only printer training program of its kind in the world.
The Tamarind Lithography Workshop was founded in Los Angeles in 1960 as a means to “rescue” the dying art of lithography. Fully funded by the Ford Foundation until it became affiliated with the University of New Mexico in 1970.
No Modifiers: Exhibition at Tamarind Institute
Richardson’s residency at Tamarind Institute culminated in the exhibition, No Modifiers. The 2019 exhibition showcased lithographs by professional guest artists, created in collaboration with the Tamarind Institute Printer Training Program. No Modifiers, refers to the collaborative testing of skills between an artist and printers as they work towards creating a final image.
Flow 1 and 2: Prints created Tamarind Institute residency
Featured image: “Flow” and “Flow 2”, 2019, 22 x 29 in each. Two 4 plate, Eight-color lithographs. (image size for both prints: 16.5 x 23.75) These prints were produced in collaboration with Tamarind printers.
“Flow 1”, 2019
22 x 29 in
Eight-color lithograph
Edition of 10
Collaborating Printer: Perry Obee
“Flow 2”, 2019
22 x 29 in
Eight-color lithograph
Edition of 10
Collaborating Printer: Jesse Wood
Further Reading
To read the Virginia Allen statement Download:
“Tamarind homage to lithography” 1969, Museum of Modern Art 1969
For more information about the history of Tamarind:
An Informed Energy by Clinton Adams.
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