Home › Forums › Explore Media › Printmaking › Kaufman: In search of a printmaker. ~ Solved
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lewisham_phil.
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January 4, 2019 at 3:21 pm #467081
Greetings from London, England.
This isn’t a technical question, and apologies if it is not in the correct forum; but I’m hoping someone might be able to identify a printmaker active in the US in the mid 1970’s, named ‘Kaufman’ (Possibly ‘A’ or ‘R’).
I bought a couple of their prints at a fleamarket in London about 15 years ago, and however much I google, cannot find anything out about them..
I shall try and upload images: one is ‘Glenford, Ohio’ from 1975, the other, ‘Lacrosse, Kansas’, 1975.
I would be interested in opinions on the technique.. there is wood grain evident on the prints, but they don’t particularly look like woodcuts..
I have always thought they are fine quality images, and refuse to believe the artist has completely disappeared into obscurity!
Thanks for any help.I’ve just re-uploaded the images, as they seem to have disappeared from the post..
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.January 12, 2019 at 3:01 pm #756845I like those but I’m sorry I haven’t heard of this artist.
Can you show a good clear closeup of the name of the artist? That might help.
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Find me on FacebookFebruary 15, 2019 at 11:22 am #756850It isn’t uncommon to find nothing on the web about lesser known yet quite good artists who were working and selling in the pre-internet era. If you are spelling the name correctly, it is unlikely that you are going to find any existing information, but perhaps your query will find another person who has some of their work or knows of them.
Today, it doesn’t take much to get an artist’s name out there. Google will eventually find them if they have work on the web.
The top print looks like a silkscreen. Not sure on the bottom one.
March 8, 2019 at 1:40 pm #756843That Motel is in La Crosse, Kansas.
From the Hutchison (KS) News https://newspaperarchive.com/hutchinson-news-sep-21-1979-p-1/
[INDENT]A London art museum has a bit of Kansas flavor. La Crosse residents Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Bornholdt saw a familiar scene when visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. There on display was a woodcut entitled “La Crosse, Kansas.” It shows the intersection of K-4 and U.S. 183 at the north edge of town, with the Green Acre Motel and grain elevator in the background. After some inquiry, the Bornholdts discovered the woodcut was done by British artist Jonathan Kaufman. Kaufman created the picture in 1976, after visiting the United States on a working tour. Other scenes depicted in his art are from Hays and McCra-cken. The Bornholdts looked Kaufman up and were invited to visit the artist, who told them he enjoyed Kansas’ open plains and grain elevators. Prints of the La Crosse woodcut and the McCracken scene, which the Bornholdts got from Kaufman’s studio, are on display until Oct. 15 at the Hays Arts Council. The La Crosse picture is being made into a postcard to be sold at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[/INDENT]March 13, 2019 at 1:48 pm #756846Wow, excellent detective work! That’s really cool.
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Find me on FacebookMarch 22, 2019 at 4:40 am #756849Great sloothing!! I also have a print that I bought in a charity shop (UK). It’s from Russia and I did some detective work when I got it to read the back as it was (obviously!) in Russian. It was hard to translate.
Anyone want to see it? I’ll have to dig it out as I took it off the wall for fear of fade!
March 26, 2019 at 8:10 pm #756852Thanks Travelerjjm! You’ve done it! That is brilliant.
Sorry for my tardy response, to be honest I’d practically given up hope, but i’m so impressed that you’ve tracked him down.
Thanks for the other replies too.. Vmrs, you mention the signature; part of the problem is the signature is indistinct; it doesn’t look like a J, so that limits your search abilities right away.
What is very strange is that I thought I had seen the Lacrosse woodcut in the V&A many years ago (it was part of an exhibition showing printmaking techniques..) but when I bought it a few years afterwards, as I couldn’t find anything out at all about the picture, or the artist, I convinced myself that I was completely mistaken, so much so that I didn’t even think to mention it in my first post.. but it was true all along! Thank you so much for replying; I’d love to know how you found it; the newspaper database doesn’t seem to appear in my Google searches.
If I had had the courage of my initial convictions, maybe I would’ve tracked it down directly at the V&A, because here[/URL] it is, catalogued online for posterity..
Thanks again!March 27, 2019 at 2:33 pm #756851whoops messed up that link.. I’ll try again:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1026465/print/%5B/URL%5DMarch 28, 2019 at 2:30 pm #756844You are quite welcome. It was a fun search.
March 30, 2019 at 7:38 pm #756847Great sloothing!! I also have a print that I bought in a charity shop (UK). It’s from Russia and I did some detective work when I got it to read the back as it was (obviously!) in Russian. It was hard to translate.
Anyone want to see it? I’ll have to dig it out as I took it off the wall for fear of fade!
I’d like to see that!
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Find me on FacebookApril 18, 2019 at 10:13 am #756848What a cool print of La Crosse. My aunt and uncle live there, and I cannot count how many times I’ve driven through that town and past the motel. I love the woodgrain texture in the sky. What a marvelous image.
I would to see the print without the glare.May 14, 2019 at 11:00 am #756853Justin, if you check out the link I posted above, there is a reasonable size image on the V&A website..
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1026465/print/I found another of his pieces, from 1974, ‘Dusk in Zanesville’, sold at auction in 2013:
https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Dusk-in-Zanesville/20DA4A0E6B135076
Meanwhile, I haven’t managed to track down Mr Kaufman, beyond the information already known. I shall keep trying.
May 17, 2019 at 12:55 pm #756854Out of interest, just had a mosey on over to the ‘states via Google Maps, to have a look at the artist’s eye view.. on the face of it, the view of La Crosse in particular doesn’t immediately look very promising! I’m impressed with what he got out of the subject. Note the high-rise grain silo in the distance.. and I think I prefer the ’70’s Green Acre Motel branding.
July 9, 2020 at 2:39 pm #1310053Jonathan used to stay at our place in Cincinnati, OH each time he came to the US. This was back in the 70’s and I have lost touch with him over the years. I’ll have to check with my friends to see if anyone knows where he ended up. He was a soft spoken and very interesting guy.
March 22, 2021 at 7:01 am #1394131Thanks for replying; I would love to hear if you had any luck tracking down the elusive Mr Kaufman over the last few months.
Thanks!
Phil
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