Occasionally I will search the internet for artworks attributed to my grandfather or great-uncle. Recently I located two of Noble Curry's fine art prints created during his years as a Works Progress Administration artist. While I was hoping that these two artworks were some of the "lost" artworks done by him during this period (Noble's daughter Mary is familiar with both), I was nonetheless very happy to have access to the good quality images and specific information about them. (To enlarge the images, double click on them.)
Oranges, two prints located from an edition of 25:
Lithograph, 1935-1942, 11 1/4 × 13 1/4 in. (28.6 × 33.7 cm)
1-Case Western University, Cleveland, OH (#3 from the edition)
2-Murray State University, Murray, KY (# unknown)
In my view, Oranges is a premium example of a lithographic print. Why? Each color you can see in this complex image was "pulled" from a slab of limestone on which Noble drew with an oily black crayon. After the stone was drawn on, the black crayon was removed after the whole surface was acid-washed. Every grain of the stone where the crayon was applied became receptive to oil-based ink rolled onto the acid-cleaned, wet slab. For each color, this process was repeated with the paper being carefully laid on the stone and run through a heavy printing press. With each pass, a new ink color was applied to the paper, thus creating subtle combinations of layered color. Oranges shows what a masterful print artist Noble was. He was able to foresee how color and value could be built, pass by pass, using this labor-intensive process. One wonders: where are the other 23 copies of this lithograph and 22 copies of Street Scene shown below?
Street Scene, two prints located from an edition of 25, and one print owned by Noble's daughter, Mary:
Lithograph, 1940-41, 8 1/4 × 11 1/4 in. (21 × 28.6 cm) on brown-toned paper
1-Case Western University, Cleveland, OH (#22 from the edition)
2-Murray State University, Murray, KY (# unknown)
Street Scene is a dark, dramatic lithograph of a nocturnal scene in four colors on warm brown paper. On the original photo (I cropped it before placing it here) one can see the color registration strip clearly in the right margin of the print. At first glance, this print looks like a drawing with white highlights added. In fact, Noble did create four drawings directly on the lithographic stone to complete this composite image. Prints made in this manner are each considered an original work of art. Therefore, each owner of one of the numbered prints from an edition becomes an owner of an original. For obvious reasons, the cost of a fine art print is less than one would pay for a single painting. Also, as a work on paper, a fine art print is more vulnerable to aging or damage than a painting on canvas or panel, thereby lessening its monetary value.
As a point of interest, many artists who are inclined to create fine art prints hire printmaking specialists to do the printing. An artist will create the drawing on the stone (in black, as I described above), select the colors for each separate layer, but ultimately hand the technical work over to a hired lithographer. We can admire Noble's extraordinary skill as the artist and printmaker, both. I can attest to the difficulty of creating clean, precise lithographic prints. As a student of printmaking at the University of Washington I learned the techniques but by no means mastered them. Both of the prints shown here should be considered exemplary.
