Froelick Gallery is thrilled to announce that The Morgan Library and Museum, NY, NY has acquired a rare, handmade book by Rick Bartow 8 Prints and 4 Variations.
The Morgan is one of the most prestigious collections of important manuscripts, Americana, and twentieth century materials, so it is a special honor that they now hold one of Bartow's very few handmade books. Bartow (1946-2016) was prolific in drawing, paintings, sculpture and printmaking, but to Froelick Gallery's knowledge created only approximately 20 unique books. This book includes twelve of Bartow's drypoint print editions, Bartow hand-colored four of them. Like most of Bartow's "artist" books, this was hand bound by his long-time collaborative master printer Seiichi Hiroshima (Tokyo). Public institutions that hold Bartow books include the Beinecke Library, Yale University Art Gallery, Multnomah County Public Library, The Boise Art Museum, and Crocker Art Museum,
In April 2021 Seiichi Hiroshima commented:
"When I visited Rick at Fall of 2009 Rick didn't want to work on monotypes and he seemed to be a bit ill. I had plenty of time unless I worked on monotype together with him. I started binding small sketchbooks with various pieces of paper in stock and finally I bound five large books. He eventually made eight drypoint plates; I usually print Rick's drypoints in Tokyo, but I had time so I printed at the South Beach workshop. I asked him to make small drawings for the books and he drew 20 images of Indians, 14 birds, and he handcolored 4 drypoints from prior years. These prints and drawings became the six hand-bound books of 2009: two titled "10 little indians," "8 birds," "6 Birds," and two versions of "8prints and 4 variations."
8 Prints and 4 Variations details: dypoints on pages 1 to 8, are each dated 2009, are edition #3/16 and titled as folllows: #1 "Bear Coming", #2 "Daydream of Dog," #3 "She Loves the Wolf," #4 "Hawk Vision," #5 "Crow Story," #6 "Memory," #7 "Sparrow Song," #8 "Origin of Song." The Variable Edition (VE) drypoints in page order are #9 "Hunted" printed 2003, #10 "For Klimt" printed 2000, #11 "Cernunnos" printed 2003, and #12 "CH Crow" printed 2007.
Froelick Gallery holds 3 of Rick Bartow's available artist books: Two copies of the 2001 Parts & Pieces: A Brief Bestiary,Prints and Drawings by Frank Boyden and Rick Bartow, (edition #3/6 and P/P #2/2), and Hiroshima's P/P of the 2016 Bosch Book. Please contact the gallery for more details on any of these works, or if you know of other Bartow hand-made books.
