Brice Marden Donates Etching to FAPE's Lee Kimche McGrath Original Print Collection
Brice Marden Donates Art Work to FAPE's Original Print Collection.
- (1888PressRelease) May 10, 2011 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art, announced today that renowned artist Brice Marden will donate First Etched Letter, an etching, to the organization's Lee Kimche McGrath Original Print Collection. Named for its Founding Director, the Original Print Collection is FAPE's oldest program, which began in 1989, when Frank Stella donated The Symphony in an edition large enough for a print to be sent to every American embassy.
Brice Marden is the 19th artist to donate to the Collection. Born in Bronxville, New York in 1938, Marden's artistic repertoire has developed to reveal a range of influences derived from his experiences traveling throughout the world. First Etched Letter echoes the expressive, improvised art of handwriting inherent in the calligraphers of the Chinese Song Dynasty. Marden first saw the original works in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, where they made an impression on him. He was specifically influenced by the works of Mi Fu and Su Shih, who was also an important poet who wrote under the name Su Tung p'o.
Of the piece and his work with FAPE, Marden writes, "This etching, First Etched Letter, is the first finished of a group based on drawings made in response to the letters of the great Song calligraphers. It is, among other things, about communication. It is a welcome pleasure to be invited into our government precincts with art. It is a joy to have a government that allows this."
FAPE's Chairman Jo Carole Lauder said, "As one of America's preeminent artists, Brice Marden's gift is a wonderful addition to FAPE's Lee Kimche McGrath Original Print Collection. We are grateful to Brice for donating this edition of prints for permanent display in 50 U.S. embassies around the world, and honored that he supports our mission to use art as a tool for cross-cultural dialogue."
Marden will present his etching at FAPE's State Department luncheon hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Thursday, May 19, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Since 1995, John Baldessari, Louisiana Bendolph, Mary Lee Bendolph, Loretta Bennett, Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mangold, Elizabeth Murray, Loretta Pettway, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Susan Rothenberg, and Ed Ruscha have contributed editions. The Original Print Collection is valued at more than $7 million.
Artists support FAPE's mission to increase the dynamic role art plays in promoting American culture abroad by contributing to the Collection. The prints not only provide a lasting gift to the embassy's host country, but also offer American artists another permanent home to showcase their works outside the United States.
About Brice Marden
Brice Marden received an MFA from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1963. It was at Yale, under instruction from artists including Alex Katz and Jon Schueler and working alongside students Richard Serra and Chuck Close, that Marden arrived at the rectangular format and muted, extremely individualized palette that characterize his early monochromatic panels. Over the course of his career Marden's work has developed to reveal the range of influences he has absorbed during his travels throughout the world. The light and landscape of the Greek island of Hydra and the art, landscape, and culture of Asia are manifested in the heightened colors and calligraphic gestures of his more recent work, which, expanding beyond the strictures of Minimalism, reincorporates landscape and the figure into abstract painting while reconnecting it with Abstract Expressionism and non-Western traditions.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presented a retrospective exhibition of Marden's work in 2006, and he has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Documenta IX, Kassel; and the Serpentine Gallery and Tate Gallery, London. Marden (born 1938) lives and works in New York.
About The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies
The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private, non-partisan partnership in 1986, FAPE works with the U.S. Department of State to contribute fine art to U.S. embassies around the world. FAPE's donations include works by more than 200 preeminent American artists placed in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in Washington D.C., FAPE has raised over $60 million in art and monetary contributions to date. For more information, please visit www.fapeglobal.org.
Media Contacts
For FAPE
Radha Vij
Gutenberg Communications
212.239.8741
radha ( @ ) gutenbergpr dot com
For Brice Marden
Tina Hejtmanek
212.337.9926
planeimage ( @ ) earthlink dot net
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