This untitled abstract expressionist lithograph was drawn directly onto a flexible aluminum or paper plate in 1948 by American artist, George Stillman. It was included in the Drawings portfolio of offset-printed lithographs created by San Francisco Bay Area artists Stillman, Richard Diebenkorn, James Budd Dixon, John Hultberg, Walter Kuhlman, and Frank Lobdell. Most of the artists were students at the California School of Fine Arts, some had studios in the ICB building in Sausalito, and all exhibited their work at the Seashore Gallery of Modern Art in Sausalito. Drawings was conceived by the group in an effort to stave off the closure of their gallery as there were limited venues for exhibiting non-representational work.
The artists were given greasy crayons to draw on the "plates" which were then given to Eric T. Ledin of Mill Valley who printed on antique-white Dictationbond paper by Fox River using a Multilith offset press. The impressions were tipped onto a sheet of wove cartridge paper and the artists signed the support sheet or the actual print. Black construction paper folios were created and labeled: Drawings / Dixon / Diebenkorn / Hultberg / Kuhlman / Lobdell / Stillman / Published by Eric T. Ledin Mill Valley Calif.
The Dictationbond sheets measure 11 x 8-1/2 inches and the support sheets measure 12-3/4 x 10-1/8 inches. Drawings is considered the first Abstract Expressionist portfolio created in the United States.
George Stillman, painter, printmaker, photographer, and teacher, was born to Stella and Herman Stillman in Laramie, Wyoming on 25 February 1921. In 1922, the Stillman family was living in Los Angeles and, by 1930, they had settled in Ontario, California. His precocious curiosity was nurtured by his father, a professional photographer, who allowed him to experiment in his photographic darkroom. At seventeen, Stillman submitted work for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, which won first prize for creative photography.
Stillman attended Chaffey College in Alta Loma, California in 1941 and then
enrolled in the University of California Berkeley where he studied chemistry.
The U.S. entry into World War II interrupted his studies as he was drafted into
military service in 1942.
After his discharge in 1945, Stillman opened a commercial photography studio
and enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) under the G.I. Bill. He
began to paint and made his first original prints in the lithography class taught
by Ray Bertrand at the CSFA. As he was exploring abstraction, he made friends
with fellow artists Walt Kuhlman, James Budd Dixon, Frank Lobdell, Richard
Diebendorn, and John Hultburg. The six artists became known as the Sausalito
Six as some of the artists had studios in the Industrial Center Building, a converted
wartime building, in Sausalito. They exhibited at the Seashore Gallery of
Modern Art in Sausalito and, in an effort to support their gallery, the six
produced the portfolio Drawings in
1948. The portfolio consisted of seventeen Abstract Expressionist offset
lithographs that were printed by Eric Ledin in Mill Valley. Drawings has become recognized as the
first Abstract Expressionist portfolio created in the U.S.
In 1949, Stillman won the Ann Bremer award from the San Francisco Museum of
Art and the Samuel S. Bender Award which he used to study in Mexico. Stillman's
work was shown in galleries in Guadalajara and Mexico City in 1951 and, that
year ,he accepted a teaching position at the University of Guadalajara. In
1953, Stillman began working for the U.S. Army in Latin America as chief of the
Reproduction Branch and he taught photolithography. He also worked for the Army
in Brazil and Bolivia.
Stillman returned to the United States in 1955 and accepted the position of
producer-director at Arizona State University Television in Tempe. While
working at the university he attended classes and received his B.F.A. in 1968 and
his M.F.A. in 1970. That same year, he was invited to join the faculty of Columbus
College in Georgia where he established the art department. In 1972, Stillman
moved to Washington state where he taught at Central Washington State
University until his retirement in 1988. Stillman received the National
Endowment for the Art Fellowship Award in 1990.
George Stillman is represented in the collections of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan; the British Museum, London; the Oakland Museum of California; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.
George Stillman died in Ellensburg, Washington on 12 March 1997.
