Sum of the Parts: Serial Imagery in Printmaking, 1500 to Now

Printmaking’s capacity for serial imagery was recognized during the Renaissance in Europe and has continued to be explored by artists across centuries and geography to creative, at times experimental ends. This exhibition highlights a variety of organizing principles within the serial format, from pictorial narratives to thematic groupings, iconographic sequences marking time and place, as well as structural and conceptual progressions. Selected from the collection of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, this exhibition not only examines prints formally conceived as sets or series, but equally considers artists’ serial procedures and approaches in prints across five centuries. The exhibition features works by some 20 artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Jacques Callot, Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Bridget Riley, and Zarina.

Sum of the Parts: Serial Imagery in Printmaking, 1500 to Now is curated by Naoko Takahatake, director and chief curator, Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, with Jennie Waldow, Luce Curatorial Fellow.