This untitled abstraction is a multi-technique color Masonite intaglio created in 1969 by Joseph Demarais. It is pencil signed by the artist and dated. It is also inscribed Artists Proof but this intaglio is not illustrated in the cataloge “Demarais” by Franz G. Geierhaas so we cannot offer the edition size. It was printed by the artist on a heavy, cream wove paper and the platemark measures 20-3/4 x 11-3/4 inches.
Joseph Demarais, printmaker, sculptor, ceramist, and educator, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on February 22, 1927. As a teenager, he struggled academically but he discovered pleasure in playing the trumpet. He was drafted into the military during World War II and was assigned to the 78th Division Band and the 303rd Army Band in Berlin. Demarais performed with these groups all over Europe. After his discharge in 1947, his life was unsettled until he entered the Manhattan School of Music in 1948. He thrived in that environment and completed his Masters in Music Theory and Music Education in less than four years.
Demarais was a music instructor in the public schools of Chester, New York, for two years and directed the Marlboro High School band for five years. He worked evenings as a pianist or created sculptures in various media. In 1960, he moved to Miami, Florida where he enrolled in art courses at the University of Miami. Two professors who were instrumental in his development were John Klinkenberg and Eugene Massin.
In 1962, Demarais returned to the New York and taught art at the White Plains High school. He enrolled in Teachers College, Columbia University, in the fall of 1964, where he took courses in etching with Justin Schoor who encouraged him to show his work to gallerists. Demarais also taught printmaking at the Trenton State College in New Jersey.
The bulk of his oeuvre was created between 1964 and 1971. In that brief time, Demarais developed an innovative process for creating dimensional intaglio-relief prints, building up the surfaces of zinc, copper, acetate, or masonite matrices to create deeply textured impressions. He exhibited in at least sixty exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe and twenty-five of those were solo exhibitions.
The work of Joseph Demarais is represented in the
collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; the
Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts; the Dayton Art Institute, Ohio; the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London; the Yale Art Museum, New Haven, Connecticut; the Smithsonian American
Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Joseph Demarais died in New York City in 1971.
