Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Aristide Bruant in Cabaret, 1893 Lithograph, printed in color 50 1/8 x 37 ˝” Gift of Emilio Sanchez

New York, NY -- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Georg Baselitz, and Louise Bourgeois are all celebrated for their work in painting or sculpture, but it may be surprising to know that they have also made hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of printed works. This exhibition, with nearly 90 prints selected from the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, has been planned especially for the AXA Gallery. The exhibition ranges from the 1890s to the present day, and represents one view across the breadth and depth of The Museum of Modern Art’s collection by focusing on eight artists who have embraced printmaking as integral to their creative process. Artists & Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art, will be on exhibition at the AXA Gallery from October 9, 2003 – January 24, 2004.

Artists & Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art is organized by Deborah Wye, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art, and presented by The AXA Gallery. The AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Financial and its subsidiary The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Additional assistance has been provided by AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

Some of the artists presented here were introduced to printmaking in art school or were taught by friends; others were invited to make prints in professional workshops aided by “master printers” who became trusted collaborators. Several went on to enlarge on the traditional capacities of techniques, as with Munch’s jigsaw-style cutting of the woodblock; others focused on one technique as with Toulouse-Lautrec’s embrace of color lithography for large-scale posters. This exhibition demonstrates how each of these individual artists approached the printmaking medium. It includes established masterpieces such as Picasso’s The Weeping Woman and Johns’s Ale Cans, as well as rare examples of experimental works that reveal an artist’s thinking as he or she evolves imagery through stages. In all, it brings together an exceptional group of works by artists who have employed printmaking to expand their creativity and, in so doing, have opened up new avenues of appreciation for the viewer.

Pablo Picasso The Weeping Woman, 1937 Etching, aquatint, and drypoint The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art houses an extraordinary collection of 53,000 works, documenting such techniques as woodcut, lithography, etching, and screenprint as they developed in the modern period. Many celebrated artists represented in this collection have opened up new avenues of creativity through their exploration of printmaking techniques and have produced major bodies of printed art that, in turn, have stimulated their work in other mediums. In so doing, printmaking has become a vital component of their overall practice. This exhibition will explore the work of eight such artists who have worked in a variety of techniques throughout their careers, taking full advantage of the potential of printmaking as an expressive language.

Jasper Johns Ale Cans, 1964 14 Ľ x 11 3/16” Lithograph, printed in color Gift of the Celeste and Armand Bartos Foundation

The Museum of Modern Art is undergoing an extensive building project at its West 53^rd Street location and is operating in a temporary location in Queens. During this period of construction, various aspects of the museum’s collection have been organized for traveling exhibitions.

AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Financial and its subsidiary The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Additional assistance has been provided by AXA Art Insurance Corporation. AXA Gallery presents works from all fields of the visual arts, with a special emphasis placed on exhibitions that would not otherwise have a presence in the city. It is located in the atrium lobby of Equitable Tower, 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street, in New York City. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11am - 6pm, and Saturday, noon to 5pm. The Gallery is closed on Sundays. Admission is free.