"Drop Dead Gorgeous: Fine Bindings of La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation"
DATES: September 6 to October 6, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 6, 2019, 6:00–8:00 pm
LOCATION: San Francisco Center for the Book, 375 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, California.
Debuting in San Francisco, the exhibition will feature the work of twenty-two design binders, including Don Glaister, Monique Lallier, Midori Kunikata-Cockram and Julian Thomas. Tools, materials, and supplemental material used in the creation of Maryatt’s edition of La Prose will also be on display. Upon closing in San Francisco in October, the exhibition travels to additional venues in the United States, Canada and England. See the blog home page for details.
2. DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
The Re-creation of a Masterpiece: La Prose du Transsibérien.
Documentary by Rosylyn Rhee. Los Angeles, 2019.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 2019, 6:00–8:00 pm
LOCATION: San Francisco Center for the Book, 375 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, California
In this documentary, we follow Kitty Maryatt as she produces her re-creation of the gorgeous 1913 book by painter Sonia Delaunay and poet Blaise Cendrars, La Prose du Transsibérien. Unique to its time, the book pushed boundaries of book structure, painted imagery and poetic expression. Using original techniques of letterpress printing and pochoir (stenciling) to reproduce her edition of La Prose, Kitty develops insight into the creative and conceptual challenges faced by Blaise and Sonia, while attempting to discover why they did not complete their planned edition.
3. LEGION OF HONOR VIEWING of ORIGINAL
TITLE: Viewing of the Logan Collection’s La Prose du Transsibérien, led by Kitty Maryatt
DATE: October 5, 2019, 3:00–5:00 pm
LOCATION: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Lower level, Legion of Honor, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco CA 94121
Join Drop Dead Gorgeous curator Kitty Maryatt and Collections Specialist Steve Woodall (Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts) for this rare opportunity to view the Logan Collection’s original 1913 copy of La Prose du Transsibérien, created by artist Sonia Delaunay and poet Blaise Cendrars. Related books from the Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books will also be on view.
Note: reservations are required for this event and seating is limited to 20 people.
Email exhibitions@sfcb.org to reserve your space.
4. POCHOIR CLASS
Introduction to Traditional French Pochoir
September 7th and 8th, 2019 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM
San Francisco Center for the Book
Instructor: Kitty Maryatt
The word pochoir in French simply means stencil, which has been done by every culture since mankind blew iron oxide around their hands onto cave walls. As the French are known to do, they developed particularly sophisticated stencil techniques in the early twentieth century. This workshop will introduce the basics of printing multiples through such stencils. The steps involve the following: trace the imagery that you want to reproduce, develop a registration system, identify and separate the colors, cut aluminum plates by hand, mix gouache colors, prime the French pochoir brush and apply the liquid in a swirling fashion.
Demonstrations of tracing images and cutting the plates will be shown first. Participants will trace one color from the image and cut an aluminum plate. The instructor will bring a pre-designed image with plates already cut so that participants can immediately learn the brush techniques. The six colors will be applied as the group makes an edition of the image. Then we will look at the images brought in by participants and discover which images are appropriate to reproduce in this way, including printing a base image.
Next, participants will select or create an image to be reproduced and go through the steps to make an edition of that image. Since this is an introduction, the focus will be on problem-solving and experiencing the joy of vibrant and true color. Additional techniques used on La Prose will be highlighted and demonstrated.
Materials to Bring: Removable scotch tape, pochoir brush from Talas: $50 for size 44 (optional), drawing pencil (hard lead) with sharpener or technical mechanical pencil (Staedtler or Faber-Castell) with H lead if possible, eraser (Pentel Clic Eraser if possible), printmaking papers to experiment with: Arches Cover, Rives BFK, Frankfurt, etc. Images that might be appropriate for pochoir; example: Kandinsky early paintings, letterpress printed works that you want to add color to, your own imagery.
Optional and available at SFCB for student use during workshop: Cutting mat, utility knife with snap-off blade, ruler
Workshop Fee (includes $56 materials fee): $400.00
