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Palo Alto Online

For the love of monotype

by Nisha Ramachandran

During a conversation with Paula Kirkeby last year, Signe Mayfield, curator of the Palo Alto Arts Center, posed a question to the gallery owner: "Why collect?"

Kirkeby, who owns Smith Andersen Editions with her husband Philip, responded: "For the love it!"

Her response that day provides the inspiration for a new exhibition at the Art Center, which also takes its name from her answer. "For the love of it" is a tribute to Kirkeby for her role in championing the monotype, a unique and spontaneous form of art.

"When you have a good gallery, it's a special thing," said Mayfield. "People have no idea about the role the gallerist takes -- they have to be there to artists, initiate interest to collector.

"Paula has done what she has done with great verve and spirit," said Mayfield.

The exhibit, drawn from private collections of works purchased from Smith Andersen during the past 34 years, primarily features monotypes from artists around the country.

Also included in the show are pieces by local artists Joseph Zirker and Marguerite Saegesser, who have long-standing relationships with Smith Andersen. Much like Kirkeby, these artists have also been guided by their pure love of art.

In its simplest form, a monotype is created by painting on a glass surface. A sheet of paper is then pressed on top of the wet paint to transfer the image. Since the design on the glass surface loses color after one print and dries quickly, the first press is usually the only copy of the image -- making it one of a kind.

Zirker and Saegesser came to the monotype from other mediums, but both say they were attracted to the form because of its possibilities.

"I was interested in the monotype because it was something foreign to me and I like to explore things," said Saegesser. She began experimenting with the medium at the beginning of the 1980s, when a friend encouraged her to try a monotype. Saegesser previously worked as a sculptor, but had tried painting before.

Saegesser discovered the monotype allowed her to express new ideas and forms she was unable to express in painting and turned her full attention to the medium.

"Printmaking and painting interact," she said. "There are things you cannot do in painting that you can do in printmaking."

For Zirker, working with the monotypes posed a way of combine his diverse interests in art.

"My background was in printmaking, drawing, woodcut, collage, but I found a way to incorporate all my basic loves into one medium," he said.

Zirker first realized the potential behind the monotype after he saw Degas Monotypes, an exhibition catalogue by Eugenia Parry Janis, published in 1968 by Harvard's Fog Art Museum in Boston.

He decided he wanted to try the medium, but didn't have access to a press to make his work. However, Zirker found a way around that barrier, using a spoon to laboriously press the paper to the wet image on the glass plate.

The results of his efforts were mixed. Physically, the work took its toil on Zirker.

"I got bursitis in my shoulder because of the work with the spoon and couldn't work for two years," Zirker said. "I couldn't raise my arm above a certain height."

But professionally, Zirker drew attention from both Smith Andersen and the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Both places simultaneously hosted Zirker's first monotype show in 1972.

When Zirker first started in working on monotypes in the 1960s however, the medium wasn't fully embraced by the art community. Although not a new art form -- the monotype traces back to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, who made etchings in 1640 -- the contemporary art community didn't see the medium as a legitimate.

"When I first started with the monotype there wasn't a museum in country that would show them," Kirkeby said. "They were considered a bastard, neither drawing or etching but in middle, so why bother?"

"I like uphill battles so I figured I would fight them," she said.

Kirkeby started the Smith Andersen Gallery in 1969 with the intention of showing monotypes. Her first exhibition at the gallery were a series of monotype prints by Palo Alto artist Nathan Oliveria. During those first years the gallery was open, Kirkeby displayed work by other artists in the field such as Sam Francis and Zirker.

"Paula broke down the museum attitude toward print mediums, and because of her efforts, the monotype is accepted in museum circles," said Mayfield.

In 1978, Kirkeby joined with artist Joseph Goldyne and collector Mary Margaret Anderson to form 3EP Press, dedicated to publishing etchings and monotypes by artists. The press offered an artists a chance to live and work in a residency experience at 3EP.

The press eventually disbanded, but in 1984 Kirkeby opened Smith Andersen Editions with a familiar purpose: for exploration of the monotype. Each year, Smith Andersen hosts seven artist to make monotypes on the in-house press. Artists are supplied with paper, paint and anything else the artist desires and are assisted by a master printer who works at Smith Andersen.

"It kind of takes you into another realm of creative endeavor," says Zirker, who works at the press once a year. "The nice thing about the place is that Paula makes no demands. If you mess up totally, nothing happens."

Zirker also says the assistance offered by the press reduces much of the pressure involved in making a monotype.

"It's great to have someone help you because it is physical work," he said. "For two weeks, all you have to worry about it just making art and not the tedium, not the physical stuff."

Saegassar, who keeps her press at the gallery, agrees.

"I think [Kirkeby] is like a rock and we all kind of surround her. She helps whenever she can," she said.