Tamarind

Founded in 1960, Tamarind Institute has had a major influence on art-making in the late twentieth century. Tamarind’s mission, based on the vision of founding director June Wayne—and her 1959 proposal to the Ford Foundation—has been to usher American lithography from relative obscurity to the forefront of printmaking, a mission it has accomplished with great success. This book documents many of the extraordinary prints that have been made at Tamarind and the artists and printers who have worked there over the last four decades.

Clinton Adams, artist and former director of Tamarind, offers his view of lithography in this country from the perspective of his half-century of involvement with it, and David Acton examines one of Tamarind’s most significant contributions, Abstract Expressionist prints. Pat Gilmour writes on the art of collaboration and Susan Tallman on where Tamarind fits into the history of printmaking and twentieth-century art. With its record of all the printers’ chops and all the artists who have worked there, as well as the many local, national, and international programs Tamarind has sponsored and Marjorie Devon’s essay on current events in the workshop, this book is an essential addition to the library of anyone concerned with contemporary printmaking.