This video is the story of Key West Hand Print Fabrics, with Suzie Zuzek and Lilly Pulitzer. A version of this video with audio descriptions is available here. Read more about the exhibition, Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints that Made the Fashion Brand
Comprised of 104 individual plates and published in three volumes between 1808 and 1810, The Microcosm of London was originally issued in twenty-six monthly parts. Published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764—1834), it supplied the luxury print market with a comprehensive volume on contemporary London. Cooper Hewitt holds a large number prints from the Microcosm, including this...
In October of 1979, an exhibition entitled Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics opened at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The show, associated with the second annual “Survival of the Black Artist” Fine Arts Festival, later traveled to Howard University—alma mater of the exhibition’s 26 year-old curator, Richard J. Powell.[1] The first survey of its kind, Impressions/Expressions...
How to catch a crocodile? In this drawing, the Flemish artist Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus (1523 —1605) shows us one particularly bold method. Hunters sit astride their prey, forcing long sticks between the crocodiles’ snapping jaws; companions armed with clubs wait nearby, ready to bludgeon the overpowered reptiles. The image isn’t based on...
George Barbier’s Au Jardin des Hespérides (Garden of the Hesperides) appeared in 1913 in Gazette du Bon Ton. Translated as the “Journal for Good Taste,” it was intended for an elite readership concerned with high-society culture and entertainment, as well as the latest developments in fashion and beauty. The publication was led by the publishing...
The publisher J.M. Dent was an admirer of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press, founded in 1889 and known for expensive, lavish publications featuring illustrations and decorations by artists such as Edward Burne-Jones printed from hand-cut woodblocks. Dent conceived the idea of producing books in the style of the Kelmscott Press but at a much lower cost,...
In 1879 James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was commissioned by the Fine Art Society to produce twelve etchings of Venice, Italy with the expectation the series would be completed by Christmas and sold in London. Provided with a stipend for his expenses Whistler arrived in Venice in September 1879 and remained in Italy until November 1880,...
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) is commonly regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Northern Renaissance. He trained under his father, a goldsmith, and later with Michel Wolgemut, a well-known printmaker and publisher. One of Dürer’s most prominent works is The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse dated ca. 1497-98, a woodcut print that depicts...
Celebrated fashion designer Sena Yang, creator of her namesake line SENA, led a two-session fashion workshop at Cooper-Hewitt for high-school students. The workshop was an exciting opportunity for students to create original prints and a concept for a collection based on their own designs. Sena started the workshop with a bang when she shared...
