The Prairie Print Makers by Karal Ann Marling, Elizabeth G. Seaton, and Bill North

Just the gift prints

The 2001 book entitled The Prairie Print Makers was published in association with a traveling exhibition of prints curated by ExhibitsUSA, a program managed by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, headquartered in Kansas City. The Prairie Print Makers was an organization founded by ten Kansas artists in 1930 for the purpose of staging exhibitions of prints and promoting graphic arts in the media of lithography, etching, and relief prints. The group eventually grew to include over 100 artists from all over the United States and Canada, including some of North America’s finest printmakers. The majority of its members produced art in a realist or regionalist style, with landscapes, nature studies, and images of rural life being common subjects.

The text of this book consists of three short essays by cultural historian Karal Ann Marling and art historians Elizabeth G. Seaton and Bill North. The latter two are both curators at the Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. In addition to providing a very brief overview of the group’s formation and its activities, the essays provide some insightful context on how the Prairie Print Makers fit into the American art scene of their time, growing out of a need for inexpensive art during the Great Depression, and how they eventually disbanded as abstract expressionism rose to prominence.

In addition to active members (the artists invited to join the group), the Prairie Print Makers had associate members. These were not artists but rather patrons and supporters of the arts, print collectors, and so on. In exchange for a modest annual membership fee, these associate members would receive a gift print each year. The Prairie Print Makers produced 34 of these gift prints from 1931 to 1965 (they skipped 1963), usually printed in editions of 200. The exhibition by ExhibitsUSA consisted of these 34 gift prints, and that is what is illustrated in the book. Each gets a full-page reproduction. Four are color prints, the rest black and white. Seeing all the gift prints assembled in one location is nice, but it’s kind of a lazy way to put together an exhibition on the Prairie Print Makers. A few of the gift prints were made by artists who clearly were not among the organization’s best. There are also examples of great artists turning in merely good work, sometimes not in their medium of expertise. One matter I’ve never found explained, in any source on the group, is how these gift prints, and the artists who made them, were chosen. Other than a concerted effort at variety in subject and style, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the selection. Was it a competition, or did the board just delegate an artist to do the job each year? If the latter, on what basis were they chosen?

Each gift print is accompanied by a short write-up, mostly consisting of biographical information about the artist. One of the most valuable aspects of this book is that it lists bibliographical references for most of the artists whose work is included in the volume, which brings the reader’s attention to some sources that are more informative than this one. Though Seaton’s and North’s essays are pretty good, the brief text of the book provides only the barest-bones overview of the Prairie Print Makers. A more thorough and attractive introduction to the Prairie Print Makers is the 1984 book of the same title by Barbara Thompson O’Neill, George C. Foreman, and Howard W. Ellington. It goes into much more detail on the formation of the group and the careers of its founding members, and the images chosen for reproduction are among the best works of some of the more important artists in the group.

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Prints reproduced in the book

Birger Sandzén, A Kansas Creek, lithograph, 1931

Norma Bassett Hall, La Gaude – France, color woodcut, 1943

Luigi Lucioni, Theme in White, etching, 1955

In the Middle of America, Printmaking and Print Exhibitions: C. A. Seward and Friends, Wichita, Kansas, 1916-1946 by Barbara Thompson

Kansas’s impressive legacy of graphic art

When you think of important and influential art centers in America, chances are Kansas doesn’t pop into your head. In her 2013 book In the Middle of America, however, author Barbara Thompson reminds us that the city of Wichita was a thriving center of printmaking in the early 20th century. Thompson, an independent art historian, is also the granddaughter of C. A. Seward, an accomplished printmaker who was the driving force behind the Wichita arts scene and its particular interest in printmaking. Seward, a founder of the Prairie Print Makers and its most active member, organized many print exhibitions in Kansas and facilitated the exchange of prints and printing knowledge between Kansas printmakers and artists elsewhere in the United States and Canada. In the Middle of America, Printmaking and Print Exhibitions is the joint exhibition catalog for four concurrent printmaking exhibitions held in Wichita in 2013. In this book Thompson provides a wealth of detail on the history of the Wichita arts community and Seward’s activities to advance and promote art in the media of lithography, etching, and block prints.

In conjunction with his involvement in the Prairie Printmakers and the Wichita Art Association, Seward assembled a series of print exhibitions in Wichita from 1921 until his death in 1939. Thompson catalogs the prints that appeared in these exhibitions and discusses the artists, inside and outside of Kansas, who made them, including some of the most highly regarded printmakers in America and Canada at the time. In addition to an overall history of the regional printmaking movement in Kansas, Thompson provides biographical sketches of 79 printmakers and examples of their work. These biographies are not comprehensive but rather emphasize the artists’ connections to the Wichita arts scene. Thompson also looks into the impact made on American printmaking by the Western Lithograph Company, a commercial printer that, under Seward’s direction, diversified into producing prints by fine art lithographers.

Thompson’s writing is very informative and her research extremely thorough. The design of the book, however, is not great. It looks like it was typeset in Microsoft Word, and the long lines of Times Roman are not easy on the eyes. Instead of full-page photos, this book opts for many smaller images, around 1.5 x 2.5 inches each. I’m fine with that decision, because it provides more prints to view, but the way all the images are shoved into the gutter of the book does not make for comfortable browsing.

If you are looking for an introduction to the Prairie Print Makers, filled with big beautiful pictures, this is probably not the book for you. You would be better off reading Thompson’s 1984 book with George C. Foreman and Howard Ellington entitled The Prairie Print Makers, or the 2001 book of the same title authored by Bill North, Karal Ann Marling, and Elizabeth Seaton. In the Middle of America is a book for those who already have some prior knowledge of Kansas’s great printmaking history and are looking for more intricate and arcane details, of which Thompson amply delivers. This book will appeal to a very particular audience of readers: artists and collectors who appreciate realistic early modern printmaking and Kansans and Wichitans interested in the history of their state and/or city. Readers like me who fit into the specific intersection point of that Venn diagram will enjoy this book very much and find it loaded with valuable information.

Prints reproduced in the book

Lloyd C. Foltz, Among the Mines, block print, 1931

Birger Sandzén, Utah Poplars, lithograph, 1930

Gustave Baumann, Mountain Pool, block print, 1922

C.A. Seward: Artist and Draughtsman by Carole Gardner, et al.

Middle America’s printmaker extraordinaire

Born on a ranch in sparsely populated central Kansas, Coy Avon Seward (1884-1939) grew up to become one of his home state’s most accomplished artists, achieving national and international acclaim. Printmaking was his medium of expertise, and he also worked professionally in the printing and graphic arts industries. Not only was Seward a founding member of the Prairie Print Makers, he was the guiding force behind the organization’s formation and its operations over the first decade of its existence. Seward exhibited his lithographs, etchings, and block prints in America and Europe and received many awards for his work. The book C.A. Seward: Artist and Draughtsman was published by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas as the catalogue to their exhibition of Seward’s prints in 2010.

The book contains two biographical essays on Seward. The first is written by three of his grandchildren: Carole Gardner, Barbara Thompson, and David Thompson. Barbara Thompson, under the name of Barbara Thompson O’Neill, previously wrote the book The Prairie Print Makers, which although brief is probably the best available overview of that group’s history and a beautiful little book to boot. I don’t know if she is a professional art historian, but she writes like a good one. Seward’s three grandchildren have compiled a very comprehensive chronicle of the artist’s career that also shows revealing insights into his generous and enthusiastic character. Seward was not only a great artist but also very active in many arts organizations, staging print exhibitions, and teaching and promoting other artists. Reading about his career in the early 20th century makes one nostalgic for the days when representational landscapes were better appreciated and successful careers were built on talent, hard work, and goodwill among fellow artists.

The second essay is by Spencer Museum curator Kate Mayer. Unfortunately, much of her chapter repeats what was in the first essay. That’s not a criticism of her writing but rather the fault of whoever edited the book. More attention should have been paid to avoiding redundancy.

Among the appendices is a catalog raisonné of all of Seward’s prints, though it is brief and only states the most basic data like title, date, and size. Not all of his 171 prints are pictured in the book, but more than 150 of them are. The most (and perhaps only) disappointing aspect of Seward’s superb body of work is that he only made a dozen block prints. From those few examples (including the gorgeous book cover), it is evident that he was a master of the linocut, at least in regards to landscapes. One can only wish that he had made more of these beautiful relief prints, but he preferred lithography and etching, and excelled at both.

The Spencer Museum of Art consistently produces books of very fine quality, and this publication is no exception. Seward’s prints look fabulous in these pages, and any fan of his work should seek out this book, which can be viewed for free online at the Spencer Museum’s issuu site. The prevailing history of art in America tends to stress that all worthwhile accomplishments were made within the creative spheres of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. However, there is a whole other history of exceptional artists who excelled in every corner of America, particularly during the heyday of regional realism. Seward is one such lesser-known modern master, and this lovely and well-executed book is a testament to the fact that talented artists on the Great Plains could compete with their big-city brethren.
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Prints by C.A. Seward

Mountains and Desert, lithograph, 1929

Land of Mystery, linoleum cut, 1930

Washerwoman’s Alley, etching, 1932