California Society of Printmakers (CSP) is the oldest continuously operating association of printmakers and friends of printmakers in the United States. CSP is a non-profit arts organization with an international membership of print artists and supporters of the art of fine printmaking. CSP promotes professional development and opportunity for printmakers, and educates artists and the public about printmaking. New members are admitted by portfolio review. Friends and supporters of printmaking are admitted by fee.
American print clubs or printmaking societies were prolific in the 19th century. Their impetus was primarily exhibition, technical exchange, shared equipment, and the promotion of printmaking as a fine art, as opposed to a method of reproducing images. The invention of photography meant that reproduction of art works could be achieved photographically instead of through the graphic arts of etching, engraving, and lithography. Thus these methods of printmaking were freed from their reproducing role to develop as pure fine arts. In addition to the rise of printmaking societies/clubs, individual printmaking artists also sought to distinguish their work as a fine art, as opposed to a craft. Generally these artists from the 19th century were referred to as painter-etchers. Nineteenth century printmaking societies in the United States were the New York Etchers Club (1877), Boston Etchers Club (1880?), Philadelphia Society of Etchers (1880), Brooklyn Etchers Club (1881), Brooklyn Scratchers Club (1882), Society of American Etchers (1888), Cincinnati Etchers Club (circa 1890).
Early 20th century printmaking societies were the very influential Chicago Society of Etchers (1910), begun and promoted by Bertha Jaques, the California Society of Etchers (1912), and the Brooklyn Society of Etchers (1915).
The California Society of Etchers (CSE), now the California Society of Printmakers (CSP), is the oldest continuously functioning printmaking society in the United States. Throughout the 1950s and well into the 1980s short histories of the society penned by various elected officers always referred to CSE/CSP as " the second oldest" continuous operating club in the United States. However, these historians consistently failed to mention what the oldest society was. It is now clear, by default actually, that those society members were referring to the Chicago Society of Etchers, of which the California Society was very aware, as its founder Bertha Jaques was always encouraging local printmakers to establish their own local society, and she joined California Society of Etchers when non-resident members were first admitted in 1913.[1]. The Chicago Society of Etchers ceased operations in 1956, leaving California Society of Printmakers as the longest lived association of printmakers in the U.S.
As of 2009, it had become clear that the California Society of Printmakers is the oldest continuously operating print society in the United States.
The California Society of Etchers (CSE) was founded in San Francisco in December 1912 and announced in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 19, 1913 ("Etchers Form a State Organization", p. 27). Several sources cite an earlier 1911 date, such Marilyn S. Kushner's detailed chapter, "Genesis of the Twentieth-Century Print Club", although she does not cite her source. Robert S. Harshe, founder, and later first president of California Society of Etchers, leaves the founding date ambiguous in his chapter in the 1916 book, Art in California. His chapter mentions the four years of the society, although it the chapter itself is undated. Mary Millman and Dave Bohn's very thorough biography of John W. Winkler, cited above, support the CSE founding date of 1912.
The founding of CSE is intimately connected with the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE), a world’s fair held in 1915 in San Francisco to showcase the city’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake. It was Joseph Pennell, scheduled to be a juror for this event, who inspired a handful of local printmakers to launch the California Society of Etchers in preparation for that great event. Pennell, perhaps the best known American etcher in New York City, had traveled to Panama to sketch the construction of the Canal, then traveled to San Francisco where he produced a series of etchings of San Francisco, exhibiting them in 1912 in San Francisco. It is said that his presence in San Francisco achieved its purpose: encouraging local printmakers to get prepared and organized to take advantage of the promotional opportunities afforded by the upcoming San Francisco PPIE, reported to be the largest display of art work of its time.
The four founders were artist colleagues: Robert B. Harshe (1879–1938), himself an etcher and then art professor at Stanford University;[2] Pedro J. Lemos (1882–1954), then etcher and professor at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, the predecessor of San Francisco Institute of Art; Gottardo Piazzoni (1872–1945), painter and muralist; and Ralph Stackpole (1885–1973), a sculptor, printmaker, and at that time Piazzoni's studio assistant.
The young organization began exhibiting immediately, with its first annual exhibition in April, 1913 at Vickery, Atkins and Torrey Print Gallery, 550 Sutter Street, San Francisco. Its second annual exhibition was also held in 1913.
Admission of artist members to the Society was originally not by juried portfolio review, as it is today. Then the society was open to all artists, painters and sculptors alike, who had experience with etching techniques. Artist membership was expanded beyond California in 1913 to include artists throughout the United States, and later internationally. The primary purpose of the Society was exhibition and education, promoting printmaking as a fine art, and sharing workspace and equipment. Non-artist members, then as now, were accepted as Associate members. Membership in both artist and associate categories grew quickly. The four founding members grew to fifteen charter members, those who were members at the time of publication of the first Constitution of the CSE in 1915. By 1925 there were 41 artist members and 107 associate members. Among the most prominent associate members were the Moore S. Achenbachs, the Sigmund Sterns, Dr. Leon Kolb, the Milton Esbergs, the Zellerbachs, Albert M. Bender, and institutions such as the De Young Museum, Oakland Public Library, and the Print Club of Albany New York.
California Society of Etchers (CSE) had enjoyed a dedicated executive secretary, Nicholas Dunphy (1896–1955), for more than 20 years, from 1932 to his death in 1955. Understandably, Dunphy’s death created a huge hole in CSE's leadership. Nonetheless, annual membership shows continued except for the year of his death, with Elizabeth Ginno (1911–1991) becoming secretary after Dunphy's death. Ginno, Ginno's husband John W. Winkler, aka Winks (1890–1979), and Mark Luca (1918– ), were active CSE members between 1955 and 1968, the year that CSE merged with Bay Printmakers Society to form California Society of Printmakers (CSP)
In 1955 two graduate students from Oakland's California College of Arts and Crafts (now the California College of the Arts) were eager for exhibition opportunities. According to Jean Womack, former CSP historian, Mel Strawn (1929–) and Will Petersen (1928–1994) placed an ad in a national art magazine announcing themselves as the Bay Print Society hosting a national exhibition. Work was to be sent to the address cited even though a location for the actual show had not yet been established. As the work poured in, Paul Mills, then director of the Oakland Museum of Art, provided the venue, and remained a strong supporter during the next four national exhibitions. The first exhibition was juried by John Paul Jones, respected printmaker from UCLA. The jurying took place at the home of Eldon Mills, friend of Mel Strawn, and an active supporter of Bay Printmakers; it was monitored/observed by Sabro Hasegawa, a visiting teacher from Japan at CCAC.
Charter members of the Bay Printmakers Society included artists Beth Van Hoesen (1926– ), John Ihle (1925-–2002), Karl Kasten (1916– ), and Nathan Oliveira (1928– ), Gordon Cook (1927–1985), Virginia Vandegrift, and art collector Eldon Mills. Their activities were focused exclusively on the national show. Between 1955-1958, Bay Printmakers generally had one person juries for their open national shows. After John Paul Jones, BPS jurors were printmaker Leonard Edmondson (1916–2002); poet Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972); and Director of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Ernst Gunter Troche (1909–1971).
Between 1959 and 1965 CSE created three person jury teams for their national print exhibitions. These generally consisted of one artist member, one critic, and one museum curator. In 1959 the jurors were Ernest Freed, John Winkler, John LaPlante. In 1960 the jurors were by Doel Reed, E. Gunter Troche, and Raymond E. Lewis. Other CSE national annual jurors were: 1961 Gordon Cook; 1965 Wayne Thiebaud, Alan Lynch, and Moses Lasky.
In 1968 Ginno invited Bay Printmaker member John Ihle to join CSE, probably the first dual member of both organizations. Ginno then approached Bay Printmaker president Karl Kasten, who had help create the etching studios at the new San Francisco State University campus in 1949 and then joined UC Berkeley's art department in printmaking, about the possibility of merging CSE and BPS. Kasten took up the suggestion immediately. Both organizations met at the Oakland Museum in 1968 and approved the merger, electing Kasten as the first president of the new society, which they named California Society of Printmakers. A new constitution was created, and exhibitions, education of members and the public, and publications continued.
Today, CSP has approximately 250 artist members, 19 honorary members, and 12 associate and patron memberships. CSP publishes the annual California Printmaker Journal and the semi-annual California Printmaker Newsbrief.
The current officers of California Society of Printmakers are shown at the CSP website.
A complete lists of exhibitions of the California Society of Etchers (CSE), the Bay Printmakers Society (BPS), and the California Society of Printmakers (CSP) is located on the California Society of Printmakers web site.
California Society of Printmakers maintains two separate archives: one of its records, the other of prints. The California Society of Printmakers Records were given to The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley by the California Society of Printmakers in January 1988. Additions were made in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007. A finding aid to the records may be found at the Online Archive of California.
The CSP archive of prints is maintained by CSP at members' studios. An inventory and history has not yet been created.