From Library Journal
By the 1890s, Parisians were inundated with printed matter catering to both collectors and those with more popular taste. Many factors contributed to this paper fallout, some technological, some social. Frustrated young artists sought a broader audience outside the rigid Salon system, Montmartre had become commercialized, innovations in printmaking made buying original art affordable, short-lived but vital literary journals were open to experimentation, and conventions of all kinds were in flux. Publishers of books, posters, sheet music, and artist's portfolios all had a hand in bringing prints of all kinds directly to the public. Thanks to the efforts of Virginia and Ira Jackson, who began collecting in the 1960s, and the National Gallery of Art, which recently mounted an exhibition of their prints, this catalog captures the last decade of the 19th century in the most popular mass medium of its time. Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec are among the many artists featured in the comprehensive show, which can also be studied online (www.nga.gov/exhibitions/printsabound.htm). Essays by Phillip Dennis Cate, director of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, as well as Richard Tomson and Gale Murray, provide a clear social context. This nicely put-together book will fill a niche in many libraries in both printmaking and media history; however, owing to the cost, it may be more suitable for large public and academic libraries. Susan Lense, Upper Arlington P.L., OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Printmaking exploded with creative energy at the end of the nineteenth century in France. Artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon were at the forefront of the avant-garde movement to reinvigorate the applied arts through colour printmaking. Prints Abound probes the phenomenal outpouring of print publications in late nineteenth-century France. Exploring the artistic, technical, economic, commercial and cultural circumstances of 1890s Paris, Prints Abound reaches a fuller understanding of art nouveau, which emphasised the fusion of exquisite design with the everyday. The achievements of Bonnard are stressed and his work is represented in depth, with spirited posters, contributions to solo and collective portfolios, designs for music primers and illustrated books, and an outstanding four- panel folding screen of a fashionable street scene in fin-de- si￯﾿ﾽcle Paris. Phillip Dennis Cate, Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, has written the introduction and a text on illustrated books; Richard Thomson, Chair of the Art History Department at the University of Edinburgh, discusses single- artist print albums; and Gale B. Murray, Chair of the Art History Department at Colorado College, considers music illustration. Prints Abound will be fascinating reading for print collectors and dealers, art historians and all those with an interest in this important period of French culture.

Author Biography: Phillip Dennis Cate is Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University; Richard Thompson is the Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art and Chairman of the Department of Art History at the University of Edinburgh and Gale B. Murray is Professor and Chair at the Department of Art History at Colorado College

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal