Universal Limited Art Editions: A History and Catalogue, the First Twenty-Five Years

Tatyana Grosman (1904-1982) did more than perhaps any other single individual to establish printmaking as a major American art. In her West Islip, N.Y., workshop/publishing outfit, Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), she gave creative latitude to many artists before their rise to fame. A treasure trove of images, the album features Helen Frankenthaler's simple, sensuous forms, Grace Hartigan's lyrical abstracts inspired by poems, Cy Twombly's calligraphic swirls, a puckish Saul Steinberg print, and works by Larry Rivers, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Marisol, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine, others. Sparks, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, preeminent repository of ULAE prints, explores the collaborations among painters, printers, poets and writers which made ULAE a fertile laboratory. Art critic Wallach offers an affectionate memoir of chameleonlike Grosman driven by a sense of mission. (Jan.)