Selections from the Shut-In Suite
Paul Harris
March 31 - May 6, 2023
Marinaro Gallery Annex, New York
CV
Press Release
Interview between Brackett Creek Exhibitions and Valpuri Remling, the Master Printer and Workshop Manager of the Tamarind Institute
Original Tamarind Institute “Document Sheets” of the Shut-In Suite
Brackett Creek is pleased to present five lithographs from Paul Harris’ Shut-In Suite at the Marinaro Gallery Annex. Paul Harris created the Shut-In Suite, a series of twenty-one lithographs, in 1969 while an artist-fellow at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
“I lived alone in a rundown LA apartment amidst my own disorder. I had not intended to make a Shut-in Suite... there was just no time to go out into the world. I shuttled between the apartment and the print center for three months. At the end of the second month, I realized that my world was first, a crummy apartment and second, my imagination.”
Each print in the series depicts a closely-cropped interior setting—a window (without a view), a bathroom mirror, a lamp—notably absent of any figuration, contrary to the rest of Paul Harris’ oeuvre
(aside from a series of drawings).
Founded in 1960 by artist June Wayne, the Tamarind Lithography Workshop was central in reviving artistic stone lithography practices in the United States. Southern California lithography print houses such as Gemini G.E.L. and Cirrus Editions grew directly out of Tamarind. The highly technical nature of stone lithography necessitates a relationship between artist and print master in order to create a print that is more than a reproduction but rather an artwork in itself. One of the primary objectives since Tamarind’s inception has been about fostering close collaborations between print masters and visual artists to realize the artist’s vision through lithography print and to influence their artistic process outside of the print studio.
Within nine years of Tamarind’s foundation, MoMA presented an exhibition showcasing a selection of lithographs, entitled “Tamarind: Homage to Lithography” that included works from Sam Francis, Josef Albers, Philip Guston, Ruth Asawa, among other notable artists of the time. By 1970, the Tamarind Lithography Workshop became incorporated into the University of New Mexico as the Tamarind Institute, where it is still located to this day.
The Shut-In Suite was a collaboration with printer-fellows Paul Clinton, Ed Hamilton, William Law III, Gene Sturman, Hitoshi Takatsuki, Larry Thomas, David Trowbridge and S. Tracy White, under the supervision of Tamarind Master Printer Serge Lozingot.
Paul Harris (1925-2018, b. Orlando, FL, d. Bozeman, MT) was an American sculptor and lithographer. Harris studied under Hans Hofmann in 1949 and received an MFA from the University of New Mexico in 1950. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, SF MOMA, LACMA, and various museums and institutions in Europe and South America. He was a Fulbright professor in Chile, a MacDowell Colony resident, a Guggenheim recipient and a visiting artist at the Rinehardt School of Sculpture, Baltimore. He taught at New York University, University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco Art Institute prior to becoming a faculty member at California College of Art 1968, where he taught until 1992. His home and studio were in Bolinas, California. The Marguerite Kirk & Paul Harris Gallery is located in Bozeman, Montana, which currently houses and exhibits his estate.
“I lived alone in a rundown LA apartment amidst my own disorder. I had not intended to make a Shut-in Suite... there was just no time to go out into the world. I shuttled between the apartment and the print center for three months. At the end of the second month, I realized that my world was first, a crummy apartment and second, my imagination.”
Each print in the series depicts a closely-cropped interior setting—a window (without a view), a bathroom mirror, a lamp—notably absent of any figuration, contrary to the rest of Paul Harris’ oeuvre
(aside from a series of drawings).
Founded in 1960 by artist June Wayne, the Tamarind Lithography Workshop was central in reviving artistic stone lithography practices in the United States. Southern California lithography print houses such as Gemini G.E.L. and Cirrus Editions grew directly out of Tamarind. The highly technical nature of stone lithography necessitates a relationship between artist and print master in order to create a print that is more than a reproduction but rather an artwork in itself. One of the primary objectives since Tamarind’s inception has been about fostering close collaborations between print masters and visual artists to realize the artist’s vision through lithography print and to influence their artistic process outside of the print studio.
Within nine years of Tamarind’s foundation, MoMA presented an exhibition showcasing a selection of lithographs, entitled “Tamarind: Homage to Lithography” that included works from Sam Francis, Josef Albers, Philip Guston, Ruth Asawa, among other notable artists of the time. By 1970, the Tamarind Lithography Workshop became incorporated into the University of New Mexico as the Tamarind Institute, where it is still located to this day.
The Shut-In Suite was a collaboration with printer-fellows Paul Clinton, Ed Hamilton, William Law III, Gene Sturman, Hitoshi Takatsuki, Larry Thomas, David Trowbridge and S. Tracy White, under the supervision of Tamarind Master Printer Serge Lozingot.
Paul Harris (1925-2018, b. Orlando, FL, d. Bozeman, MT) was an American sculptor and lithographer. Harris studied under Hans Hofmann in 1949 and received an MFA from the University of New Mexico in 1950. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, SF MOMA, LACMA, and various museums and institutions in Europe and South America. He was a Fulbright professor in Chile, a MacDowell Colony resident, a Guggenheim recipient and a visiting artist at the Rinehardt School of Sculpture, Baltimore. He taught at New York University, University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco Art Institute prior to becoming a faculty member at California College of Art 1968, where he taught until 1992. His home and studio were in Bolinas, California. The Marguerite Kirk & Paul Harris Gallery is located in Bozeman, Montana, which currently houses and exhibits his estate.