Pantages is a woodengraving created in 2005 by American printmaker Richard Wagener (born 1944). It is pencil signed, dated and editioned 4/18. Pantages was printed by the artist on a sheet of ivory handmade Twin Rocker wove paper and the image measures 5 x 3 inches. Pantages was included in Cracked Sidewalks, published by Mixolydian Editions in 2006.
The palatial Art Deco Pantages Theatre in Hollywood has a history as rich as its interior. Located at Hollywood and Vine, it was designed by the architect B. Marcus Priteca and was the last theater built by vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages. The theater opened in June 1930 with vaudeville performances interspersed with first-run movies. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn brought on by the Great Depression, the vaudeville performances ceased. Pentages sold his theater to Fox West Coast Theaters in 1932 and, in 1949, it was acquired by Howard Hughes who wanted it for his RKO Theatre Circuit. For ten years beginning in 1949, the theatre hosted the Academy Award Ceremonies. In 1977, the venue switched from films to live stage productions which included Man of La Mancha, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, The King and I, Peter Pan, The Sound of Music, Hairspray, Chicago, Grease, Rent, Wicked, Hamilton, etc. The Pantages is a popular location for filming of movies, TV shows, and music videos.
Richard Wagener was born in Texicana, Arkansas in 1944. He studied biology at the University of San Diego and earned an M.F.A. in painting from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. In 2006, Wagener established the imprint Mixolydian Editions for his own fine press projects. He collaborated with David Pascoe of Nawakum Press, Santa Rosa, California, co-publishing three fine press books, one of which, Loom, earned the 2016 Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. Wagener has also produced a number of engraved bookplates that have been collected internationally. He designed the logo for the XXVII FISAE Congress held in Boston in 2000. His bookplates have been featured in Print Magazine; “Contemporary Ex-Libris Artists,” an article by James Keenan, that was published in Portugal in 2003; California Bookplates by Robert Dickover, published by the Book Club of California in 2006; and Three Centuries of the American Bookplate by James Goode, the catalog accompanying a show of bookplates at the University of Virginia from 2010.
A notable American wood engraver, Wagener's works are held in over 100 public collections in the United States and England. He was awarded the Oscar Lewis Award for contributions to the book arts.
