Printing as Prologue: Recent Work by Allan Edmunds

On the occasion of Allan Edmunds’s retirement as founding director of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Woodmere is pleased to present an exhibition showcasing Edmunds’s artistic practice, focusing on a new body of work in collage made over the two years of the pandemic.

Edmunds founded the Brandywine Workshop in 1972 and has built it into an internationally renowned resource for artists, educators, museums, collectors, and lovers of art. He is justly recognized as a leading voice in creating inclusivity in contemporary American art. His recent work explores personal histories with imagery that integrates family archives and photographs with a range of materials. Some of his collages include “repurposed” paper from the history of the Brandywine Workshop, including scraps or accidents from projects undertaken by other artists. Integrating a combination of screen printing, offset lithography, and relief printing processes, Edmunds demonstrates his mastery of a broad range of techniques. This depth of experience is also the artist’s platform for experimentation with personal meaning and memories in a manner that connects to universal themes, inspiring thought about family and heritage.

The exhibition is accompanied by a digital catalogue featuring an essay by artist and distinguished curator Ruth Fine. Having worked at the Brandywine Workshop as a printmaker, Fine writes from the perspective of experience:

“Printed papers are at the essence of the work, which has meaning for the artist as this process of multiple originals has long been associated with bringing art to a larger population, and to spreading images to distant corners of the world. Edmunds’ belief in the power of art to bring people together and help them understand each other is essential to the notion of Printing as Prologue, a start, with much to follow.”

The exhibition is funded by an anonymous donor and the Dr. Dorothy J. del Bueno Endowed Fund for Exhibitions at Woodmere. The late trustee of Woodmere, Dr. Del Bueno admired Edmunds’s work, both as an artist and as the creator of the Brandywine Workshop.

Exhibition-related events

November 5 | 5 - 7 pm | Opening Reception

January 19 | 6 - 8 pm| Closing Reception