“Combining disparate parts will always generate both drama and harmony, conflict and disparate parts will always generate both drama and harmony, conflict and desire. Opera is our portrait larger than life. Collage is our portrait of life rearranged and reordered.”
—Arturo Herrera

In Berlin Singers, Arturo Herrera juxtaposes pieces of found and hand drawn shapes with partially obscured images that evoke memory and recollection. Using techniques of fragmentation, splicing and re-contextualization, Herrera’s work provokes a multiplicity of associations. In this suite, he builds upon impressions of found copper plates, whose random scratches and stains hold the memory of their prior contents. The stars of the work are singers that appeared in printed librettos by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Photographed in the 1950’s at the peak of their fame, the singers assume a new role in Herrera’s work, where he uses their portraits as the basis to create an entirely new image. Typical for Herrera, the faces are almost completely covered by multiple layers of collage. Throughout the ten prints in the suite, Herrera explores a variety of mark making techniques, from crayon and pencil drawing to acrylic painting, marker, and tea stains. These are combined with variety of clippings from magazines and photographs. Each composition is completed with a line drawing screenprinted in transparent ink and one or more pieces of found paper glued directly onto the collage, making each print in the edition unique.

“People brought linoleum from abandoned rolls or loosened bits from kitchen floors. We found rolls of paper here and there. A local ink company gave us cans of drying ink. We had a few old rollers. We learned to use sharp knives pointed away from our own hands and fingers and away from other people. We ranged in age from 5 to maybe 70 or more. We worked together and taught one another. Oh we were dangerous! We were PRESS!”
—Eleanor Magid, Lower East Side Printshop Founder

Founded in 1968, the Lower East Side Printshop began as an open access art and community center led by Eleanor Magid in the wake of New York City’s two month-long teachers’ strike. Magid, a local parent and printmaker who had studied under Universal Limited Art Editions master printer Robert Blackburn, transcended the typical art education curriculum by showing her daughter’s classmates and neighbors the ropes of printmaking through the creation of books, stories, and illustrations on a press in her home. Once teachers reached a resolution and schools restarted, Magid kept her studio open for collaborative printmaking. The homegrown operation quickly expanded beyond Magid’s space, moving to the East Village, where the operation soon became part of the alternative spaces movement of the 1970s, offering groundbreaking 24-hour studio use nestled in the buzzing artistic and cultural hub of East 4th Street.

Lower East Side Printshop at its old location on East 4th Street, 1980s. Courtesy of Lower East Side Printshop.

Expanding their space yet again, in 2005 the organization relocated from the East Village to a facility five times larger in Midtown Manhattan, and the DIY spirit that inspired the start of the Printshop continued to prosper. Over its nearly 70-year history, the Printshop has become a premier non-profit New York City printmaking studio and resource that supports contemporary artists of all career stages and artistic backgrounds. Through the Printshop’s residency programs – which have hosted the likes of Derrick Adams, Jeffrey Gibson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dread Scott, Kara Walker, James Siena, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others – artist’s receive support through access to facilities, time, stipends, and technical assistance.

In 2006, the Printshop was awarded Primary Organization status by the New York State Council on the Arts. This status is reserved for organizations that are, by the quality of their services and their stature, particularly vital to the cultural life of the state. Such designation is a testament to the important work of the Lower East Side Printshop, providing valuable resources that strengthen the artistic community of New York and promote the growth of the printmaking discipline.

Lower East Side Printshop logo, with their ink roller chopmark.
- Catalogue Essay
  Including: Lisa Otto; Hanns-Heinz Nissen; Fritz Hoppe; Herbert Braver; Irma Beilke; Emmi Hagemann; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Hanns Pick; Ernst Krukowski; and Georg Gerhardt

Property from the Lower East Side Printshop Archives

111

Arturo Herrera

Berlin Singers

2010
The complete set of 10 etching and screenprints in colors with digital print and collage, on Rives BFK and Niyodo papers, with full margins.
all I. 11 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (29.8 x 21.6 cm)
all S. 18 1/8 x 14 3/8 in. (46 x 36.5 cm)
All signed with initials, dated and numbered 'PP 1/3' in pencil (a printer's proof set, the edition was 20 and 4 artist's proofs), published by the Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., New York (with their blindstamp), all unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$3,000 - 5,000

Sold for $3,810

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