Tamarind Institute: Lithography Workshop and Gallery

archives

tamarind lithography workshop & tamarind institute archives

This section contains a general description of the scope and content of the Tamarind archives, held by the Southwest Research Center of the General Library, University of New Mexico, as well as a brief institutional history.

A detailed inventory list is available from the Center for Southwest Research; contact Beth Silbergleit at (505) 277-70060 or bsil@unm.edu for further information. A complete content list can be found at the Rocky Mountain Online Research website.

The print archive is held by the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Contact Michele Penhall, Curator of Prints and Photographs, at (505) 277-2868 or email kapu@unm.edu for further information.

University of New Mexico
General Library
Center for Southwest Research
Manuscript Inventory

Main entry: Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
Title: Records, 1959-1983.
Collection Number: MSS 574 BC
Size: 52 boxes (50 cu. ft.), plus 1 oversized folder

scope and content

The Tamarind collection is divided into two series: Administrative Files, and Research and Publications. These series are further divided into subseries (see Table of Contents, beginning on page 5 for details). For the most part, the collection retains the basic organization established by TLW. We have done little re-filing, thus materials that were not filed correctly when the collection was given to us largely remain "mis-filed" or in miscellaneous subseries. Original Tamarind file numbers appear in parentheses, following folder descriptions. There is some overlap between the two series.

Series I, Administrative Files includes papers and correspondence relative to the establishment of the TLW in Los Angeles, continuing throughout the decade that the Workshop was located in Los Angeles (1960-70). It includes:

Correspondence with members of its Board of Directors and its Panel of Selection
Correspondence with artists who were nominated for fellowships
Applications from and correspondence with prospective printer- and curator-fellows
Tape recordings (5", 7", 9" reels and cassettes) of interviews and lectures
Other materials relative to the operation of TLW.

The series also contains correspondence and files pertinent to the subsequent establishment of the Tamarind Institute at UNM in 1970, and the operation of the Institute into the 1980s, including correspondence with artists, printers, and curators who have worked at TI.

Series II, Research and Publications contains research and publications generated both at the TLW and TI, including:

Research notes
Manuscript material
Publications
Correspondence related to projects undertaken at Tamarind.

Notably, this series includes the The Tamarind Book of Lithography: Art and Techniques. and two films produced at Tamarind, The Look of a Lithographer and Four Stones for Kanemitsu, although some administrative materials related to these projects will also be found in Series I.

This inventory has been created using WordPerfect 6.1 software, and is most efficiently searched electronically. The researcher should be aware that in certain subseries, such as General Files, Artists Biographies, Artists Editions, and Documentation Worksheets, individuals may be grouped together in an alphabetical range, and therefore their individual names will not appear. Files specific to individuals use a last name, first name format; other appearances of names often use a first name or first initial, last name format. In some instances, only last names appear in the inventory.

Photographs, including photographs of lithographs, artists, printers, and visitors to the Workshop and the Institute have been transferred to the CSWR photoarchives.

Duplicate, preservation copies of most audio tapes will be found in boxes labelled A, B, C, shelved with the rest of the collection.

institutional history
In 1959, artist June Wayne submitted a proposal to W. McNeil Lowry of the Ford Foundation for the establishment of a workshop devoted to the revival and preservation of the art of lithography. Wayne's initial proposal to the Ford Foundation (FF) formulated six goals for Tamarind, which were to:

Create a pool of master artisan-printers in the United States by training apprentices under one or more European master-printers imported for this purpose
Develop a group of American artists of diverse styles into masters of this medium
Habituate artist and artisan to intimate collaboration so that each becomes responsive and stimulating to the other in the work situation. Encourage both to experiment widely and extend the expressive potential of the medium
Stimulate new markets for the lithograph
Plan a format to guide the artisan in earning his [/her] living outside of subsidy or total dependence on the artist's pocket
Restore the prestige of lithography by actually creating a collection of extraordinary prints.

Wayne's proposal was accepted and Tamarind Lithography Workshop (TLW) was established as a nonprofit corporation. A board of directors was created. Clinton Adams took a year's leave of absence from his position as head of the Department of Art at the University of Florida, Gainesville, to become Tamarind's first associate director (1960-61). Garo Antreasian, from the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, was appointed Tamarind's first master printer (1960-61). A workshop was equipped at 1112 N. Tamarind Avenue in Los Angeles and Tamarind opened on July 1, 1960, with Joe Funk as the first printer-fellow and Roma Viesulas as the first artist-fellow.

Programs were developed to achieve the goals set out in the FF grant proposal. Tamarind provided fellowships to printer-trainees and artists to collaborate at Tamarind in order to "experiment widely and extend the expressive potential of the medium." A guest artist program was created to enable selected artists to create one or two lithographs. Adams developed a pioneering system of print documentation and quality control. A curatorial training program was initiated. Tamarind undertook a number of pioneering research projects to develop papers, inks, and equipment not heretofore available in America; and to explore innovative lithographic techniques to make them available to artists and printer-trainees.

In 1963, a preliminary printer-training program was instituted under Antreasian's direction at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. This program identified candidates suited to becoming professional printers and thus served as a printer-referral source for TLW. When Antreasian left Herron to become professor of art at UNM (where Adams was now dean of the College of Fine Arts), the basic training was transferred to Albuquerque. The printer-training program underwent continual revisions, while the artist fellowship program remained fairly constant (1960-69).

TLW's supplemental programs included:

Classes in print connoisseurship
Invitations to print experts to visit Tamarind for observation and instruction in lithographic printing and documentation
Marketing studies
Exhibitions
Slide programs
Films
A series of publications about various aspects of lithography.

The goal of these programs was to stimulate, preserve, and disseminate the art of lithography.

In 1966, a project was developed to subsidize writers under a new writer- grantee program. Established authors from national publications were invited for in-depth visits to Tamarind in order to publicize the progress being made. Tamarind also published a series of brochures (Tamarind Fact Sheets) on the technical and aesthetic aspects of lithography. Work began in the early 1960s to gather information for incorporation in a definitive manual on artist's lithography: a book which would become one of TLW's most important accomplishments. (Garo Antreasian and Clinton Adams, The Tamarind Book of Lithography: Art and Techniques. New York: Abrams, 1971.)

In 1969, the Museum of Modern Art launched a major exhibition, Tamarind: Homage to Lithography to mark the end of Tamarind's first decade. Tamarind produced slide sets and made them available to educational institutions, groups, and individuals in order to increase the understanding and appreciation of fine lithographs. Tamarind also produced two films: The Look of a Lithographer (1967), which documents sculptor Louise Nevelson's collaborative work with printers while an artist-fellow at TLW; and Four Stones for Kanemitsu (filmed, 1969-70), which records the making of a color lithograph by painter-printmaker, Matsumi Kanemitsu. (When released, Four Stones was nominated for an Academy Award.)

By 1969, Tamarind had substantially achieved its initial goals. Wayne saw that recent and anticipated changes in tax law would adversely affect TLW under its structure as an independent organization; it was also evident that FF support could not continue indefinitely. After consultation with Adams and other administrators at UNM, she and Adams prepared a proposal to establish Tamarind Institute (TI) as a division of the UNM College of Fine Arts; TLW then requested and received a final grant from Ford ($705,000) for the first five years of TI's operation. Adams became its director (1970-85); Antreasian served as co-director (1970-72).

UNM provided a building adjacent to the campus, funds for overhead expenses, and released time for Adams and Antreasian. Antreasian designed the workshop spaces, and Adams designed a modified program that included artist-residencies (in lieu of the artist-fellowships given at TLW), contract printing and publishing, and printer- and curatorial-training programs substantially parallel to those offered at TLW. Requirements of the revised program soon led to physical separation of the printer-training program and the professional shop.

Although contract work helped to establish a sound economic base for TI, it did not provide the stylistic diversity essential to the printer-training program; thus, in 1974, TI began to undertake publishing projects, commissioning artists to create lithographs that TI would publish and distribute.

Although TI still does some contract printing, the professional workshop is now devoted primarily to publishing projects. The artist-in-residence program, which was supported by the FF grant, was discontinued in 1975, and the curatorial traning program has also been terminated. A number of international programs have been conducted, beginning in 1984, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United States Information Agency, and other sources of support.

Main entry:	Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
Title:	Records, 1959-1983.
Collection Number:	MSS 574 BC
Size:	52 boxes (50 cu. ft.), plus 1 oversized folder