Grolier Club Exhibit Showcases

The Pissarros’ Eragny Press

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GROLIER CLUB EXHIBIT SHOWCASES THE PISSARROS’ ERAGNY PRESS w/1 cut

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NEW YORK CITY — Through April 28, the Grolier Club is presenting an exhibition devoted to the work of a uniquely poetic, yet relatively unknown, fine press. “Illustrating the Good Life: The Pissarros’ Eragny Press, 1894–1914” showcases the first comprehensive overview of this legendary press in the United States.

Curated by Professor Alice Beckwith of Providence College, the selection includes numerous titles never before exhibited, often shown in multiple copies to fully explore these beautifully illustrated volumes and, for the first time, shed light on the interaction of text and illustration that was central to the Pissarros’ aesthetic philosophy.

Founded by husband and wife Lucien (1863–1944) and Esther (1870–1951) Pissarro in 1894, the press was named after the Pissarro family’s hometown in France. Lucien was a wood engraver and, as the son of one of the most politically radical founders of French Impressionism, held socially progressive views. His handcrafted, exquisite illustrations and type were integrated with a select group of texts in the Eragny Press’s limited edition publications, for which Esther created unique bindings.

The Pissarros began their press in England during a period in which the visual arts literature and politics all became interrelated in the Arts and Crafts movement, exemplified by the work of William Morris, whose active voice called for social change. Morris’s aesthetic in turn derived much from the teachings of John Ruskin, who held up the medieval craftsman — skilled, independent and, hence, creative and happy — as a model for all “Good Lives.” This was how the Pissarros wanted to live: with respect for one’s self, for others and for the natural environment.

The books from the Eragny Press advanced this vision of the “Good Life” common to both Arts and Crafts and Neo-Impressionist art, resulting in uniquely beautiful and arresting examples of book-making. This exhibition of heretofore unknown letters, drawings, prints, woodblocks and books from public and private collections reveals the impulses behind the Pissarros’ choice of authors and themes and the dynamic interchange of ideas between England, the continent and the United States.

Their books take readers into landscapes, love songs, poetry, daily life and fairy tales from England, France, Belgium, China and the Ancient Near East, conveyed as much through graceful design and illustration as through texts.

The books in the Grolier Club exhibition are clustered in nine thematic groups: “The Book Beautiful,” “Harmony of the Printed Page,”  “Tools and Techniques,” “Daily Lives,” “Adult Fairy Tales,” “Reinventing Tradition,” “Love Songs and Poetry,” “Voices of Women” and “Eragny Influence in the United States.” Within each group, the books are organized to reveal the Pissarros’ technical innovations used in their ever-more-colorful illustrations and decorative ornaments, as well as to identify their social messages and the increasing diversity of their patrons and publishing choices.

The Grolier Club is at 47 East 60th Street. For information, www.grolierclub.org or 212-838-6690.

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‘JULIA RANDALL DECOYS AND LURES’ ON VIEW AT JEFF BAILEY GALLERY

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NEW YORK CITY — Jeff Bailey Gallery presents the exhibition, “Julia Randall, Decoys and Lures,” on view through March 17.

In a series of colored pencil drawings, Randall has created strange flowers and plants hybridized with human and animal traits. Abundantly detailed and saturated with color, each flower and plant initially appears to be an incredibly precise botanical or naturalia drawing. Yet they reveal themselves to be bizarre fetish objects, incorporating human elements such as skin, hair and tongues.

Inspired by cloning, genetically modified food and plants, plastic surgery and other forms of unnatural intervention, these humanoid hybrids are depicted as decoys. They entice other species from their normal ecosystem, ultimately ensnaring birds, butterflies and other insects. The “Decoys” hint at the perils of human meddling with the natural world.

In “Decoy #4,” raw meat becomes part of a parrot tulip’s petals. Drawn fingerprints ostensibly allude to someone reaching out and touching the drawing, leaving their marks behind.

Other trompe l’oeil effects, like paper punctures, thrust the decoys into space and implicate the viewer. The “Lures” are drawings of mouths and tongues in rapid motion, suggesting speech and beckoning the viewer.

This is Randall’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Her work was most recently on view in the group exhibition “Twice Drawn” at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The gallery is at 511 West 25th Street. For information, www.baileygallery.com or 212-989-0156.

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GROUP SHOW, ‘ITALIAN VISIONS: 40 YEARS OF ART’ ON VIEW AT VIVIAN HORAN FINE ART

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NEW YORK CITY — Vivian Horan Fine Art is presenting “Italian Visions: 40 Years of Art,” a group exhibition featuring nine artists connected to the Arte Povera movement, through April 13.

The Italian critic Germano Celant coined the term “Arte Povera” in 1967 after a group of Italian artists attempting to break down the dichotomy between art and life. The artists focus on concept and materials, attentive to the world and humanity, as well as poetic, political and historical concerns. The works included in this exhibition span the years 1959–2001 and employ various materials that expand beyond the picture frame, while sharing an elegant force that follows in the Italian art tradition.

This exhibit shows the rich, inventive spontaneity of Arte Povera artworks, which resonate with an abstract meditative quality. Featured artists are Alighiero E. Boetti, Alberto Burri, Enrico Castellani, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Lucio Fontana, Jannis Kounellis, Fausto Melotti, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Mario Schifano.

Using various techniques, these works guide the viewer to look at art in new ways by asking one to be aware of their present space and to use not only their eyes, but their mind as well. Due to this inclination toward conceptual investigation, these artists share a dialogue with the Earthwork artists, Fluxists and 50s pre-Pop, featuring everyday materials and simplicity to join art with life.

Vivian Horan Fine Art is at 35 East 67th Street. For information, 212-517-9410 or www.vivianhoran.com.