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In 1957, at a small printmaking workshop based inside a cottage in West Islip, Long Island, artist Larry Rivers (1923-2002) and poet Frank O’Hara (1926-1966) began their famed lithographic project Stones, a groundbreaking but playfully approachable convergence of words and imagery. Stones was published two years later as a thirteen-page portfolio by Tatyana Grosman (1904-1982), a Russian immigrant, who was able to get Universal Limited Art Editions printing concern off the ground. This was ULAE’s first of many solicited projects with artists in years to come and, for Rivers, an initial voyage into printmaking. As Rivers’s worldwide prominence as an artist grew by the early 1960s, his connections and support within a world of up-and-coming artists also helped build ULAE into a highly-successful and influential operation. Revolution in Printmaking: Larry Rivers and Universal Limited Art Editions focuses on the vital influence of Rivers and the growth and continued sustainability of ULAE, still based in Suffolk County, Long Island. Over the decades, first through the efforts of Grosman and later under the expert guidance of Bill Goldston, ULAE has worked with a wide range and style of young, ambitious, talented, and internationally-famed artists that have included Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Helen Frankenthaler, Marisol and Jim Dine. The exhibition features nearly 70 works of art – paintings, lithographs, intaglios, monoprints – from these artists and many more.

Revolution in Printmaking is on display in the Art Museum from May 11 through September 3, 2018.