The New Provincetown Print Project
Nicole Eisenman, Red Grooms, Jennifer Packer, Jack Pierson, Kiki Smith, John Walker
This portfolio celebrates the important role of printmaking in the history of the Provincetown art community, as well as its central place in the artistic lives of many who have held a Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship.
In 2018, the New Provincetown Print Project was produced by the Work Center to celebrate our fiftieth year and to revive Michael Mazur’s New Provincetown Print Project. From 1990 to 1994, this groundbreaking artistic effort brought renowned artists to Provincetown to create portfolios that are now included in the collections of numerous American museums, including the National Museum of Art and the National Gallery, both in Washington, DC; the New York Public Library; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Participating artists in the 2018 project include Nicole Eisenman, Red Grooms, Jennifer Packer, Jack Pierson, Kiki Smith, and John Walker, who have worked with master printers Tony Kirk, Jennifer Melby, Andrew Mockler, James Stroud, and Rob Swainston. The title and colophon pages were designed by Theodore Miller, and printed by Peter Kruty at Peter Kruty Editions, Brooklyn, New York. The edition folio was designed by Stuart Einhorn and produced at Taylor Box Company in Warren, Rhode Island.
The edition is limited to twenty numbered copies, with ten artist’s proofs and five printer’s proofs per edition. Proceeds raised from the Project’s sales support the Fine Arts Work Center.
History of the New Provincetown Print Project
From 1990-1994, this venture brought artists to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown to produce monoprints that helped support the Work Center’s residency program for emerging artists and writers. Michael Mazur (1935-2009) along with master printer Robert Townsend, guided more than twenty artists in producing a body of monotypes, one-of-a-kind prints, often combined with mixed media and after-press hand work. These innovative prints, combined into portfolios, were placed in museum and private collections, raising funds for the Work Center’s programs.