New Canaan's Silvermine Arts Center Presents New Documentary

From Silverman Arts Center: “A Story in Stone” is a new documentary exploring the fine-art printing process of stone lithography. As legend has it, the process of stone lithography came about in Germany in 1798 as a result of spilled soup. Alois Senefelder supposedly noticed that the areas where his chicken soup met his limestone table surface, repelled water. This led to experiments using grease crayons to draw on limestone. When the stone was wiped off, the greasy areas would hold ink, leading to an inexpensive form of printmaking. The best known early Stone lithographs are the posters done for the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse Lautrec.

In the 1950s and 60s with the advent of Abstract Expressionism and Pop-Art, American artists began using stone lithography to produce limited edition prints just as Matisse, Chagall and Picasso had done in the Mourlot Studio in Paris. Seeking to preserve the process of printing on stone, schools such as the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico sprang up and employed many of the Mourlot Studio printers. Students from Tamarind then founded their own printmaking studios.

“A Story in Stone” focuses on the studio of Bridgeport artist and printmaker James Reed. James opened his shop, Milestone Graphics in 1976 and has produced limited editions for area artists as well as nationally known artists such as Ruffino Tamayo, Robert Cottingham, Richard Haas and Ann Chernow.

The half-hour documentary while providing an historic overview, also takes us through the production of an original lithographic print by Milestone Graphics. The documentary is the work of American View Productions, directed by filmmaker Frank Borres and produced by area artist Dan Makara. The film was made with the support of City Lights Gallery in Bridgeport, CT.

“A Story in Stone” will premiere Sunday Nov. 12 at 3pm at the Silvermine Arts Center, 1037 Silvermine Rd., New Canaan, CT. The showing is free to the public. A panel discussion moderated by artist Ann Chernow will follow featuring four area artists featured in the film. The featured artists will be exhibiting original print work at the premiere. Eric Mourlot of Galerie Mourlot in New York City will be a special guest at the premiere.

Also of interest, the Silvermine Galleries will have on exhibit the work of eight area print shops as well as prints from the Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection. The print exhibition, “Big Impressions, Small Presses: the Small Independent Print Shop” runs through November 19.

Silvermine Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 pm to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. For more information, call (203) 966-9700 ext. 20 or visit the website: www.silvermineart.org.

Photo courtesy of Silverman Arts Center