We’re back from the West Coast fairs. The Portland Fine Print Fair (January 28 and 29) coincided with the museum’s Constructing Identity show of African-American Art with work by Elizabeth Catlett. Of course, it’s wonderful to have a museum as a sponsor and the curators frequented the show: Mary Chapin included our collection in her Sunday tour and her Curator’s Choice was Peggy Bacon’s The Vain Pleasures; Sara Krajewski’s Choice was Ben Shahn’s Four Freedoms with Franklin Roosevelt. Traveling north to south, Portland was followed by the Los Angeles Fine Print Fair at Bonhams, February 4 and 5. Both venues were extremely well attended and were fortunate to have cool, misty days – great print fair weather!

Interest was strong in the Atelier 17 group with Sue Fuller, Peter Grippe, Jacob Kainen, Armin Landeck, Karl Schrag, and of course, Stanley William Hayter himself. The extremely scarce Victor DeWilde San Francisco scenes were popular and as were the artists featured in the St. Gaudens publication, Emerging from the Shadows, especially Dorothy Dehner and Claire Mahl Moore. And best of all, Maurine St. Gaudens, author extraordinaire, stopped by for a visit.