“This has been the destiny of my journey. “I always had this fantasy that I could get up, have coffee and walk into my studio … “My wife and I fell in love with it,” he says. In 2010 he just happened to pass by the old schoolhouse and adjacent home and garage. Holton moved to Morgan Hill Road after maintaining a studio/loft in Manayunk for many years while teaching at Lafayette. It is reminiscent of a New York fine art gallery, with framed prints and portfolios. The studio has a large state-of-the-art silk screen printer and several work tables for artists. Next door, behind two large garage doors, is Raven Fine Art Editions. Now it’s Holton’s studio, his personal space filled with canvas, easels and paint. Holton’s property is built around a one-room schoolhouse, which still has the aged, dark stained wood and antique lighting it had when it was built in 1902. Michelle Talibah of Baltimore works with Raven Fine Arts Edition employee Jase Clark on abstract prints earlier this month.
Blackburn’s legacy of generosity to artists and fostering openness to diversity is exactly what Holton is continuing.
In 1948, Robert Blackburn, an African-American artist, teacher and printmaker, established the influential Printmaking Workshop in New York City. “By getting into the WPA, they were now established,” Holton says, and this led to the establishment of print shops where artists could turn out prints (cheaper than paintings) to sell.
It’s a story that begins with the Work Progress Administration of the 1930s in which artists found work during the Great Depression. “There’s a long history of African-Americans in printmaking,” he says, explaining a history he is proud to share. More importantly, Holton is continuing a tradition. There are few small printmakers left, says Holton, who believes he is the only African American running this kind of fine art print shop today. “He should be celebrated as a national treasure,” Driskell says. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at University of Maryland-College Park.ĭriskell has worked with Holton several times, including “A Collaboration of Creativity,” an exhibition of Driskell’s “Maine Suite” prints created with Holton in 2015. In 2014, Holton was appointed executive director of the David C. In 2000, Driskell was honored by President Bill Clinton as one of 12 recipients of the National Humanities Medal. “Curlee Holton … has bridged an important gap in American art by bringing together artists and scholars and engaging them in art practice that results in an unusual creative dialogue,” says David Driskell, an African-American artist and a scholar.Īn emeritus professor at the University of Maryland-College Park, Driskell holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Catholic University and nine honorary doctoral degrees. Holton’s specialty is in serigraphs (silk screens) and etchings, but more importantly, it’s his experimental approach to the medium that has attracted artists not usually associated with the medium.Īt the printmaking institute he produced limited print editions by some of America’s most important artists including Faith Ringgold, Sam Gilliam, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Grace Hartigan, Kay WalkingStick and many others primarily known as painters. He retired last year.Īt the printmaking institute, Holton established a reputation for promoting artists of color He worked with 150 painters and printmakers from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, as well as the United States. and abroad, was the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College. Holton, whose paintings, drawings and prints are in major museums and collections in the U.S. “Red Desire” is inspired by textiles but then the artist uses dots, circles and interconnected lines to form an abstract landscape.
THE PRINT SHOP MORGAN HILL SERIES
The result was “Red Desire,” a colorful four-print series that connects tribal musings to modern society. Earlier this summer, he worked with Danny Simmons, an American abstract painter, poet and co-producer of the HBO series (and Tony-winning Broadway show) “Def Poetry Jam” with his brothers Joseph and Russell.
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