Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

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Peter Blum Edition Art Collection
1981-1987

12 portfolios, 1 folder (123 items, 96 prints)

Acquisition: Purchases (R10356, R10557, R11379) 1983-1987, and Gift (G2200) 1985
Access: A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials to the Reading Room.
Processed by: Helen Young, 2002
RLIN Record ID: TXRC

Table of Contents

Company History
Scope and Contents
Detailed Description

Company History

Peter Blum began in 1980 to publish graphic art editions under the name Peter Blum Edition. Blum, who grew up in Holland and studied political science in Paris and at Georgetown University, Washington, had an interest in art from an early age. In 1970 he took a summer job at Galerie Beyeler in Basel, and ended up working there until 1976; here he found himself attracted to fine prints, books, and printing. From 1978 to 1980 he worked in Zurich at the Internationale Neue Kunsthalle, where he documented artists ' installations. Through this job he met A. R. Penck, John Baldessari, and Jonathan Borofsky. In 1979 he visited the Galleria De Crescenzo in Rome, where he was introduced to the drawings of Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, and Mimmo Paladino. He drove back to Switzerland the next day and was struck with the idea of publishing. His first collaboration was with Cucchi in Rome. He continued to commission important artists with whom he wanted to collaborate, often choosing artists who had little or no experience with printmaking. Blum would obtain each artist's proposal, or sometimes offer his own ideas, and then select the printer's studio that would be most suitable to the artist and himself. The design and construction of the portfolio box was given the same importance as the prints themselves, sometimes with the artist's involvement.

Source: Katz, Vincent. "Interview with Peter Blum." The Print Collector's Newsletter 21, no. 4 (September-October 1990) 136-140.

Scope and Contents

The Peter Blum Edition Art Collection has twelve of the art editions and one separately published print. Fourteen different artists are represented: Americans John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Eric Fischl, and James Turrell ; Italians Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, and Enzo Cucchi; Swiss Martin Disler, Anselm Stalder, and Rolf Winnewisser; German A. R. Penck; and the Canadian collaborative group, General Idea (A. A. Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal).

The portfolios are listed in alphabetical order by artist.

The portfolios of John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Martin Disler, Eric Fischl, A.R. Penck, and Rolf Winnewisser are described in detail in Bice Curiger's Looks et Tenebrae , 1984.

The Ransom Center has additional works published by Peter Blum Edition in the Library: Enzo Cucchi's Sparire= Entschwinden= Disappearing (1987); Enzo Cucchi's Sparire (1987); Alex and Vincent Katz's A Tremor in the Morning, with original woodcuts (1986); Arthur Miller's Homely Girl, with 10 original etchings by Louise Bourgeois (1992); James Turrell's Mapping Spaces (1987); Kenneth Rexroth's translation of poems by Fu Du, Thirty-six Poems, with an original etching by Brice Marden (1987); Bice Curiger's Looks et Tenebrae (1984).

Detailed Description

Box (Location)	Description

9-10 (7.308:23:05)	Baldessari, John.  Black Dice [with photo "Black Dice � starring
					Jack La Rue, Linden Travers and Hugh McDermott"]. 1982.
			12 items:  t.p., colophon, photoprint (b&w; 20.5 x 23.4 cm.), 9 prints (etching,
					col.; 42.5 x 50 cm.), in case 55.1 x 49.3 cm.  (accession no. 2003.4.1-12)
			Edition: 30/35.

4 (7.308:23:02)	Borofsky, Jonathan.  2740475. 1982.
			15 items:  t.p., book ([14] leaves: ill.; 27.5 x 20 cm.), 13 prints (7 screen prints,
					6 etchings; 76.5 x 56 cm.), in case 89.7 x 59.5 cm. (accession no. 84.63.1-14)
			Edition: 21/50.

5 (7.308:23:03)	Chia, Sandro.  Manuale d'Aprile = April Manual. 1981.
			8 items: t.p., contents leaf, colophon, 5 prints (etching, col.; 76 x 57.2 cm.),
					in case 78.4 x 59.2 cm.  (accession no. 84.11.1-8)
			Edition: E/A.

1 (7.308:23:01)	Clemente, Francesco.  Febbre Alta. 1982.
			11 items: book ([12] leaves: ill.; 27.4 x 19.9 cm.), 10 prints (woodcut; 68 x 54 cm.),
					in case 70.7 x 55.9 cm.  accession no. 84.75.1-11)
			Edition: 8/35.

2 (7.308:23:01)	Cucchi, Enzo.  Immagine Feroce. 1981.
			7 items: t.p., colophon, 5 prints (lithograph; 64 x 47.8 cm.), in case 66.4 x 50.5 cm.
					accession no. 84.73.1-7)
			Edition: 25/50.

6 (7.308:23:03)	Disler, Martin.  Endless Modern Licking of Crashing Globe by Black Doggie
				Time-Bomb [with sound cassette recording Nigger-Joint Cabaret and
				pocket knife]. 1981.
			11 items: t.p., sound cassette, pocket knife, 8 prints (etching; 56.1 x 74.5 cm.),
					in case 59.5 x 79.4 cm.  accession no. 84.74.1-10
			Edition: 19/49.

		Fischl, Eric.
13 (7.308:23:06)		Year of the Drowned Dog. 1983.
				6 items: 6 prints (etching, col.), in case 69 x 94cm.  accession no. 84.77.1-6
				Edition: 30/35.

12 (7.308:23:06)		[Five full-length figures]. 1984.
				1 print (aquatint); plate mark 32.1 x 24.6 cm. accession no. 85.6
				Edition: VIII/X.

11 (7.308:23:05)	General Idea.  Fear Management. 1987.
			11 items: t.p., contents leaf, colophon, 8 prints (screen print, col.; 82.7 x 55.9 cm.),
					in case 88.5 x 59.4 cm.  accession no. 88.6.1-11
			Edition: 32/50.

8 (7.308:23:04)	Penck, A. R.  8 Erfahrungen. 1982.
			10 items: t.p., leaf of text, 8 prints (woodcut; 77.3 x 58 cm.), in case 84.1 x 63.8 cm.
					accession no. 84.56.1-10
			Edition: 33/50.

3 (7.308:23:02)	Stalder, Anselm.  Der Umfang des Fassungsverm�gens = The Limits of Perception
				[with book containing original monotype]. 1984.
			9 items: t.p., leaf of text, colophon, book ([72] p., [1] leaf of plates: ill.; 32.5 x 26.5 cm.),
					5 prints (woodcut; 57 x 76.3 cm.), in case 78.9 x 58.5 cm.  accession no. 2003.3.1-9
			Edition: 16/35.

7 (7.308:23:04)	Turrell, James.  Deep Sky. 1985.
			9 items: t.p., colophon, 7 prints (aquatint; 53.5 x
					68.4 cm.), in case 59.6 x 74.3 cm.  accession
					no. 87.51.1-7
			Edition: 15/45.

14 (7.308:23:06)	Winnewisser, Rolf.  Non-Territory Maps of a Strange Loop Between Visiting and Staying
				in a Picture. 1982.
			13 items: t.p., leaf of text, 11 prints (linocut, 4 col., 7 b&w; 63.5 x 97.5 cm.), in case
					65.5 x 100.9 cm.  accession no. 84.72.1-13
			Edition: 4/25.

Peter Blum Edition Art Collection Finding Aid
(Last modified: 7 October 2003 )

Reference queries to: art@hrc.utexas.edu

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