Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color

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MEDIA CONTACTS: Anne Mannix amannix@artbma.org Kelly Linton klinton@artbma.org 443-573-1870 THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART PRESENTS cPAINTED PRINTS: THE REVELATION OF COLOR d Groundbreaking exhibition reveals new discoveries about virtually unknown art form BALTIMORE, MD (October 6, 2002) 4The Baltimore Museum of Art presents the first major exhibition ever organized of hand-colored prints from the 16 th and 17 th centuries in Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque Engravings, Etchings & Woodcuts . This groundbreaking exhibition, on display from October 6, 2002 3January 5, 2003 , brings together more than 100 rarely loaned works from European and American museums and private collections. Featuring nearly 50 works by master printmaker Albrecht Dürer, Painted Prints reveals that black-and-white Renaissance prints were commonly painted with brilliant colors near the time of their production 4not centuries later as presumed by many art scholars.

cOutstanding research by The Baltimore Museum of Art 9s own curator and conservator has led to a truly remarkable exhibition, d said BMA Director Doreen Bolger. cThis is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover works that haven 9t been seen for hundreds of years. d One of the highlights is the presentation of 27 pairs of rarely seen ... more. less.

hand-colored Dürer prints and their uncolored counterparts, a juxtaposition not likely to be seen again. All of the black-and-white prints are drawn from The Baltimore Museum of Art 9s remarkable Old Master print collection. Printed in black ink and brushed with transparent washes, bold opaque colors, and hints of silver and gold by professional print colorists, the works in the exhibition range from early devotional woodcuts to playing cards to monumental wall decorations. Magnificent images by printmakers Pieter Bruegel and Hans Burgkmair, and father/son print colorists Hans and Georg Mack will be included. And, for the first time, a colored version of Dürer 9s monumental 12-ft.-high Triumphal Arch , a composite of 192 prints immortalizing the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian 9s achievements, will be presented in the United States. A 320-page full-color catalogue co-published by The Baltimore Museum of Art and Penn State University Press is also available. 4more 4 Painted Prints/News Release Page 2 of 4 Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color is organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art and curated by Susan Dackerman, BMA Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs. Thomas Primeau, BMA Associate Paper Conservator, prepared the scientific and technical aspects of the exhibition. The exhibition will travel to the St. Louis Art Museum, February 14 through May 18, 2003. This exhibition is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, promoting excellence in the humanities, and by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The Baltimore presentation is supported by Brown Investment Advisory & Trust Company and the Howard and Martha Head Fund. Additional support for research, travel, and the exhibition catalogue is provided by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, with funds from the Samuel H. Kress Paired Fellowship for Research in Conservation and the History of Art and Archaeology. The Exhibition Combining art historical and scientific expertise, Dr. Susan Dackerman, BMA Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs, and Thomas Primeau, BMA Associate Paper Conservator, traveled to castles on mountaintops, scoured 500-year-old town ledgers, and unlocked the mysteries of pigments with the latest conservation technology to reveal that, contrary to prevailing art historical opinions, the professional coloring of prints was a common practice during the Renaissance, and hand coloring prints was a specialized trade in numerous northern European cities. cThe 16 th - and 17 th - century visual experience was filled with the colors of stained-glass windows, tapestries, frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, and oil paintings, d said Dackerman. cWhy wouldn 9t prints bear the same brilliant colors? d The BMA 9s exhibition brings together works that once decorated the walls of private homes, served as religious devotional images, called attention to news sheets posted in the town square, and added an air of splendor to missives from the emperor. An entire gallery is dedicated to the print colorist 9s profession. Accented with leaded- glass windows and a timbered ceiling, it includes a recreation of a Renaissance print colorist 9s workshop, complete with easel, brushes, and period pigments. Visitors can explore how woodcuts and engravings were made, how paints were applied to prints by freehand coloring and stenciling, and how pigments were produced from minerals, roots, and plants. A major web site component, available in the galleries through a computer kiosk and online this fall through the BMA 9s web site (www.artbma.org), provides a more in-depth exploration of painted prints. Visitors journey into the world of brilliantly colored prints to learn more about why prints were colored, who painted them, and how this important aspect of printmaking was rediscovered by a BMA curator and conservator. This interactive guide to painted prints also provides visitors with the opportunity to zoom in on fascinating details, remove color from prints to reveal its importance firsthand, and see how high-tech pigment analysis can date the paint on a print. 4more 4 Painted Prints/News Release Page 3 of 4 Curators Susan Dackerman, BMA Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs In 1995 Dackerman brought her expertise in northern European Renaissance prints to the BMA, where she has curated Book Arts in the Age of Dürer , The Pious and the Profane: Looking at Renaissance Prints , and The Age of Rembrandt: Prints from the Museum 9s Collection . Dackerman also organized Chaste, Chased and Chastened: Old Testament Women in Northern Prints at The Harvard University Art Museums. She previously held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. She received an A.B. in Art History from Vassar College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. Dackerman has received a Samuel H. Kress Foundation fellowship, as well as two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color . Thomas Primeau, BMA Associate Paper Conservator Associate Paper Conservator at the BMA since 1998, Primeau received an M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation Program in the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works from the State University College at Buffalo in 1996. He earned an M.A. in Art History from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. Primeau was previously assistant paper conservator at the McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc. in Oberlin, Ohio, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the Detroit Institute of the Arts. He was awarded the Samuel H. Kress/Ailsa Mellon Bruce Paired Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1999. Catalogue cPainted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque Engravings, Etchings & Woodcuts d makes a groundbreaking contribution to the study of Old Master prints. In addition to reproduction and discussion of a variety of hand-colored prints from northern Europe of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the book presents new research into the artists who specialized in hand coloring and offers numerous insights into the social and economic organization of Renaissance and Baroque printmaking. It also draws on scientific analyses of the materials and techniques of hand coloring to address important issues of authenticity, chronology, and condition. Co-published by The Baltimore Museum of Art and Penn State University Press. 320 pages. $55 cloth; $35 paper. Available at the BMA Shop, 410/396-6338, and through Penn State University Press, 1-800-326-9180, or www.psupress.org. The Baltimore Museum of Art Founded in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art is Maryland 9s largest art museum with more than 85,000 objects, ranging from ancient mosaics to contemporary art. The Museum presents a variety of major exhibitions each year, as well as special installations that showcase the Museum 9s incomparable collection. The BMA 9s preeminent holding of post-Impressionist and modern art 4The Cone Collection 4includes a group of 500 works by Matisse, considered the largest and most comprehensive collection in the world, as well as major examples by Picasso, Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Renoir. 4more 4 Painted Prints/News Release Page 4 of 4 The BMA also features world-renowned works of modern and contemporary art; grand European paintings and sculpture from Old Masters through the 19 th century; an extensive collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15 th century to the present; notable American decorative arts and Maryland period rooms; and African, Asian, Native American, and Oceanic art. The BMA 9s Sculpture Garden, 34 works of art on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city, is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the U.S. The BMA is also recognized for imaginative interactive programs for families and dynamic school programs that reach more than 30,000 students each year. Visitor Information The Baltimore Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.; and during the first Thursday of every month (except major holidays), 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. The Museum is closed Monday, Tuesday, New Year 9s Day, July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Admission is $7 for adults; $5 for seniors ages 65 and over and college students; and free for children 18 and under. Admission is free on the first Thursday of every month and for related Free First Thursday activities. The BMA is located on Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31 st Streets, three miles north of Baltimore 9s Inner Harbor. For general Museum information, call 410/396-7100 or visit the BMA 9s web site at www.artbma.org. # # #

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