Sometimes an artist you really want to hang on the museum’s walls is only represented in the collection by minor works (in both visual impact and size). Don’t get me wrong, I love a small work—I had a running list of tiny prints that I thought would make a great show—but when it comes to contemporary works on paper, they need to be able to “hold the wall” because of the size of the galleries and the scale of the non-paper works they may hang near. My wish list included several artists in this category, most notably John Baldessari, Kara Walker, William Kentridge, and Kerry James Marshall. The museum’s collection has works on paper by these artists, but few with substantial wall power.

I chased Baldessari’s print, Roller Coaster, 1989, three times. The first time I saw it on the wall at the IFPDA Print Fair in the booth of the work’s publisher, Brooke Alexander. On opening night, the work was already on hold for a collector. The second time, it came up at auction. I got permission to bid on it and lost out to another bidder. The third time was at the print fair again, and again, I was too late.

Baldessari is a tough nut to crack. Irreverent is the best word I can think of to describe his work. But there is just something about Roller Coaster: the shaped print, the way the arc of the roller coaster moves from one end of the sheet to the other, the wall power, its size. It is so easy to like.

I also chased William Kentridge’s powerful Casspirs Full of Love, ironically also from 1989, multiple times. Two different dealers offered it to us multiple times over the years, but the price was just high enough to be out of reach. If only I could have said yes.

Whereas the Baldessari is clever and fun, the Kentridge is shocking. Severed heads appear to be stacked in a cabinet of some sort. MoMA’s web site helps us parse it out: “The title of this work refers to a message sent from mothers to sons on a popular radio program for South African troops: ‘this message comes from your mother, with Casspirs full of love.’ Casspirs are armored military vehicles; their name is an anagram for CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) and SAP (South African Police), the organization that developed them. These vehicles, designed for international military operations, were deployed against black township communities in South Africa during states of emergency imposed by the apartheid government.”

I think you can agree that both have wall power for different reasons. I could think of an exhibition with each as its centerpiece. Obviously not the same show. Well, unless one was looking at the year 1989.

John Baldessari (American, 1931–2020)
Rollercoaster, 1989
Aquatint, photogravure printed in black, green, and red
Sheet: 39 × 67 1/2 in. (99 × 171.5 cm.)
Published by Brooke Alexander

William Kentridge (South African, born 1955)
Casspirs Full of Love, 1989
Drypoint and engraving with roulette
Sheet: 65 3/8 x 38.7/16 in. (166 x 97.6 cm.)
Plate: 58 9/16 x 32 in. (148.8 x 318 cm.)
Published by the artist and David Krut

There is a holiday song with a lyric, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” that runs through my mind every October during New York Print Week. Encompassing three major print fairs—the IFPDA Print Fair, the Editions and Artists Books fair, and the Satellite Fair—there is a cornucopia of wonderful prints to see. There is, of course, also a lot of attendant programming, dinners, and socializing. Oh, and we always try to hit various galleries and museum exhibitions. It’s a super busy week, exhausting and energizing, and it’s so fun to catch up with all the artists, printers, and publishers we’ve gotten to know over the years.

Because of the pandemic, New York Print Week 2020 is occurring virtually. While the IFPDA has really stepped up to the plate with a month’s worth of daily virtual artist talks and studio tours, and each fair has set up online viewing rooms, there is nothing like being there in person.

I will always believe that one must see works of art in person to really absorb them accurately. As a curator on the hunt for contemporary (ish) works on paper, New York Print Week is one-stop shopping. At the IFPDA fair alone there are usually ninety vendors. I thought it would be fun to pick out favorite works from each fair. The caveat being, of course, that seeing the works in person might change my mind. Here’s a group from the IFPDA Print Fair in no particular order.

Derrick Adams
Self Portrait on Float, 2019
Woodblock, gold leaf, collage
40 × 40 in (101.6 × 101.6 cm)
Tandem Press

Richard Long
Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, 2014
A two panel carborundum relief, both panels printed in Black/Ultramarine Blue ink mix
47 3/4 × 152 3/4 in (121.3 × 388 cm)
Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art

William Kentridge
Telephone Lady, 2000
Linoleum cut
85 × 47 in (215.9 × 119.4 cm)
Gallery Neptune & Brown

Shahzia Sikander
Portrait of the Artist, 2016
One in a suite of four etchings
27 × 21 in (68.6 × 53.3 cm)
Pace Prints

Jacob Hashimoto
Tracing the Ever-fragile Balance of Dreamless Silence: This Unruly Forest, These Imaginings, and the Final Exhalation, 2019
Mixografia print on handmade paper
34 1/2 × 61 1/2 in (87.6 × 156.2 cm)
Mixografia

Peter Milton
Interiors VI: The Train from Munich, 1991
Resist-ground etching and engraving,
20 × 35 5/8 in (50.8 × 90.5 cm)
The Old Print Shop

Walton Ford
Benjamin's Emblem, 2000
Etching
44 3/16 × 30 3/8 in (112.2 × 77.2 cm)
Susan Sheehan Gallery

Richard Diebenkorn
High Green, Version I, 1992
Color spit bite and soap ground aquatints with soft ground and hard ground etching and drypoint
52 × 33 in (132.1 × 83.8 cm)
Crown Point Press

Tom Marioni
Drawing a Line, 2012
Drypoint with plate tarnish printed in sepia and black
54 × 16 in (137.2 × 40.6 cm)
Crown Point Press

Tauba Auerbach
Mesh Moire I-VI, 2012
Suite of six color softground etchings on Somerset white paper
86 × 98 in (218.4 × 248.9 cm)
Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art

Charles Gaines
Numbers and Trees, Tiergarten Series 3: Tree #1, April, 2018
Color aquatint and spitbite aquatint with printed acrylic box.
41 1/4 × 32 × 3 1/2 in (104.8 × 81.3 × 8.9 cm)
Paulson Fontaine Press