2023 New Editions: Suzanne Caporael
Suzanne Caporael, Pricking and Ruling, 2023. Click to view.
Suzanne Caporael, Curve, 2023. Click to view.
Suzannne Caporael’s work is deeply rooted in close observation of the natural world, the intersection of science and culture, and our attempts to define and control the environment. Through meticulous research, Caporael creates distinct series of works related to various subjects. She returned to the Tandem Press studio in 2023 to develop several new printed editions. The two largest pieces she completed both relate to early books and marks used by Medieval scribes.
The title of Pricking and Ruling refers to a process in which early scribes would create a template for their text to ensure that each page was organized and aligned correctly. The scribes would do this by puncturing the paper in designated locations and drawing lines to demarcate the location of the lines and columns. The punctuated holes allowed the markings to be carried through onto subsequent pages so the lines of text would be consistent on each page of the codex. In this print, the red dots on the left and the use of horizontal bands to construct the image directly refer to the scribes’ process. The circle and cone forms refer to a notation in Da Vinci’s Leicester Codex, a notebook in which he wrote and sketched musings about the world. In one section, he drew an illustration while contemplating the moon’s luminosity, and Caporael adopted the form of that illustration into this print.
Curve is based on marks called nota that scribes would make in the margin of texts to communicate various things to their readers. They can mean “something of interest here” or “turn the page for the rest,” etc. As with anything written over and over, they become abstract, and many have still not been interpreted. Caporael likes to think the large curving red nota she created in Curve indicates, “Turn the page.”
These two large pieces were created by printing woodblocks on hemp canvas, which had been mounted to a backing sheet of paper to keep the fabric’s fibers from shifting and moving during the printing process. Our collaborative printers also printed several of the colors multiple times to build up enough ink on the rough surface of the canvas while also achieving Caporael’s preference for the fabric’s texture to show through the printed color to some extent.
Collaborative Printmaker Patrick Smyczek inking blocks for Pricking and Ruling, 2023
Collaborative Printmakers Jason Ruhl and Joe Freye proofing Curve, 2023
Suzanne Caporael, Hutchins Island, 2023. Click to view.
Suzanne Caporael, Sprague Cove, 2023. Click to view.
During her recent visit to Tandem Press, Caporael also continued her Home Beach series from 2006 (El Capitan, Hendry’s, Gaviota, Refugio, and Rincon) and 2009 (Ensign, Lime Island, and Job Island) with Hutchins Island and Sprague Cove. Caporael grew up surfing the beaches of California and has always felt drawn to water. She is an avid kayaker and has explored many bodies of water. She currently lives on an island off the coast of Maine, close to both Hutchins Island and Sprague Cove. Caporael says the Home Beach series comes from a longing to be somewhere she is not. Although she titles them after specific places, the images are only as accurate as memories.
Suzanne Caporael, Pirate, 2023. Click to view.
Suzanne Caporael, Water Makes the Boat, 2023. Click to view.
Caporael’s connection to water continues as she created Pirate in memory of a dear friend who was a sailor. Water Makes the Boat references something Jim Yohe (of the former Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe Gallery before it changed names to Miles McEnery Gallery) said to Caporael years ago. The phrase stayed with her over time. It is a simple yet brilliant way to consider how we are defined by or influenced by our surroundings.
Suzanne Caporael, Clover, 2023. Click to view.
Suzanne Caporael, Window, 2023. Click to view.
Suzanne Caporael, Wave, 2023. Click to view.
The three smaller etchings, Clover, Window, and Wave, present sensitive abstractions that relate to many of Caporael’s larger paintings, where geometric forms take center stage within subtle fields or blurred halos. All five of these editions were printed with the same deep purple-black ink on lightly tinted green Kitakata paper, which was mounted to a larger sheet of thicker paper using a process called chine collé. Caporael drew and painted with thinned inks on mylar to create the images for these prints, and the process yielded beautiful subtle reticulations.
Suzanne Caporael (b. 1949, Brooklyn, New York) is a painter known for her elusive imagery that ranges from refined representation to color-field abstraction. Driven by various ideas relating to perception, she translates concepts such as the periodic table, tree rings, estuaries, ice, and time into stunning visual images. Caporael received both her BA and MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020) and a National Endowment for the Arts Painting Grant (1986). Caporael has been a visiting professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2009, she was an artist-in-residence at the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Chazen Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, High Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Caporael currently lives and works in Islesboro, Maine.
