Renowned painter and monotype artist, Richard Segalman, created the Print Club’s 2008 Presentation Print, Coney Island, a beach scene with a female figure dressed in white. It is based on a monotype of the same subject that the Print Selection Committee saw and admired at Marlborough Graphics. Printed on Rives BFK paper, the image is an aluminum plate lithograph in six colors with three glazes. The artist said he wanted to make the edition look as much like the monotype as possible. The process involved sketching the image in litho crayon on Mylar, and then transferring the image to aluminum plates for the various colors. After the entire edition was printed, each sheet was then passed through the press three more times—for each of the glazings. The artist indicated the glaze was to give a “hint of atmosphere” to the scene. There are very slight variations in the edition as a result of the process and the number of passes through the press. The edition was printed at Interbang Press in Santa Fe. The making of our edition was so labor intensive that the press had to hire several assistants to complete the job.
The collaboration between master printer and artist stimulated Segalman; he said painting is very lonely, and the give and take with a master printer was a pleasant change. It was the printer, for example, who suggested trying glazes to get the effect the artist wanted. Segalman told Club members that people say his “whites” (i.e. women dressed in white) are his best works; they reflect his love of John Singer Sargent’s paintings. Many are beach scenes done either in Naples, Florida or at Coney Island, where the artist grew up.
~ Gillian Greenhill Hannum ~
Museum Collections
Delaware Art Museum, Delaware
The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York
Hudson County Community College Foundation, New Jersey
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts