Zimmerli to Spotlight Artistic Collaborations and Printmaking

 The first prints created by Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, and Elizabeth Murray – among others who defined the American art scene in the 1980s – launch a series of three exhibitions at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers.

“Stars: Contemporary Prints by Derrière L’Étoile Studio” is the first survey of the studio’s printmaking achievements. Founded in 1978 in New York by printer Maurice Sánchez, Derrière L’Étoile quickly became one of the leading printmaking studios in America. The first selection of works, on view March 23 to Sept. 29, features prints from the 1980s through the early 1990s. Among the artists showcased are Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Susan Rothenberg, Kenny Sharf, and Laurie Simmons.

Maurice Sanchez

When Sánchez founded his workshop, he called it “Derrière L’Étoile”—meaning “behind the star” in French­­—to express his role as part of a technical team supporting the artist in printmaking projects.

“In the late 20th century, many artists created images by using original photography, as well as manipulating commercially published stock photographs or film stills,” explains Marilyn Symmes, Director of the Zimmerli’s Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts and Curator of Prints and Drawings. “Derrière L’Étoile Studio already excelled at lithography. It then became one of the first workshops to combine new offset, photographic, and digital technologies in realizing these innovative images.”

Elizabeth Murray

The exhibition opens with Elizabeth Murray’s first lithographs (1980-81), an untitled series of a sinuous “Z” shape. The prints show the process of evolving an image step-by-step and reflect her inspiration from a lithographic print series by Pablo Picasso. In “Six Rooms” (1993), John Baldessari juxtaposed film stills with words prompted by the pictures. Using his mind as a “camera” (“room” in Latin), the artist arranged the image-word pairings to create a new story unrelated to the original cinematic context.

Jeff Koons

One of the most recognized contemporary artists to emerge in the 1980s, Jeff Koons chose printmaking in his efforts to undermine traditional art making and the elitism of the original work of art. He exploited the then-increasing role of consumerism on the art market with his early photo-lithographic print “Art Magazine Ads: Artforum” (from the 1988-89 series “Art Magazine Ads”).

Maurice Sánchez

“The exhibition also celebrates the Zimmerli’s longtime relationship with Maurice Sánchez,” notes Suzanne Delehanty, the museum’s director. With great generosity, Sánchez has donated more than 500 unsigned printer’s proofs since 1982, when the museum launched the Rutgers Archives for Printmaking Studios to document aspects of printmaking in the United States.

Maurice Sánchez studied art history and lithography at the University of New Mexico and painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. He also received a fellowship at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop (then in Los Angeles). In 1972, Petersburg Press recruited Sánchez to work in New York with James Rosenquist on a series of prints based on his paintings, including his monumental “F-111” (1964-65), which is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1978, Sánchez founded Derrière L’Étoile Studio, which continues to produce major prints and multiples projects by some of the most recognized names in contemporary art.

The second exhibition, on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum from Oct. 5, 2013, to March 2, 2014, features prints of the 1990s by Donald Baechler, Mel Bochner, Louise Bourgeois, Carroll Dunham, Robert Gober, Red Grooms, Donald Judd, Robert Mangold, Georgia Marsh, Paul McCarthy, Tim Rollins and KOS, Renée Stout, Kara Walker, and others.

The third selection in the series, from March 8 to July 31, 2014, includes prints created from 2000 to the present by John Baldessari, Eric Fischl, Walton Ford, Natalie Frank, April Gornik, Yvonne Jacquette, Alex Katz, Jeff Koons, Robert Longo, Christian Marclay, Elizabeth Peyton, Raymond Pettibon, and others.

Related Program

“Stars: Contemporary Prints by Derrière L’Étoile Studio” is spotlighted on April 3 during Art After Hours, the eclectic evening series held on the first Wednesday of the month from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with an exhibition tour led by curator Marilyn Symmes and Maurice Sánchez. At 6:30 p.m., a conversation program features the curator and Maurice Sánchez, who discusses anecdotes and insights about the creative process behind Derrière L’Étoile Studio collaborations with artists over the past three decades. A question and answer session follows. Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for 65 and over; and free for museum members, children under 18, and Rutgers students, faculty, and staff (with ID).

The Zimmerli Art Museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street at George Street on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The Zimmerli is a short walk from the NJ Transit train station in New Brunswick, midway between New York City and Philadelphia.

Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and the first Wednesday of each month (except August), 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays, major holidays, and the month of August.

Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for 65 and over; and free for museum members, children under 18, and Rutgers students, faculty, and staff (with ID). Admission is free on the first Sunday of every month. For more information, call 848.932.7237 or visit the museum’s websitewww.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu.