Past Impressions, Through the Eyes of Printmakers: Allen Lewis
The Annex Galleries wanted to re-introduce printmakers who worked in the last century, many without national recognition.
These printmakers each brought a creative and unique glimpse of the world through the medium they worked in. Due to the lack of communication, transportation expenses and regional consideration, it was difficult to market their artwork and gain recognition unlike their counterparts today who have the access to the world via the Internet.
Throughout history and into most of the 20th century, the print world had been centered in major metropolitan areas and critics were unheard of in most communities; however, many printmakers worked in seclusion and obscurity throughout the country. Their isolation offered a fertile and creative environment for many who were able to develop their own unique visual language without concern of being "marketable." Today we are able to make these artists' lives and works available to an international audience.
DRY-POINTS ETCHINGS & WOOD-CUTS by Allen Lewis; woodcuts (2); 1918.
(European Street Scene with Horse Drawn Cart); drypoint printed chine collé; circa 1912.
Allen Lewis was born in mobile, Alabama on April 7, 1894, at the age of twenty-one, he left for Paris where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and with Jean-Léon Gérome at the École des Beaux Arts, creating his first etchings in 1895. In 1900 his work was accepted in the printmaking section of the Paris Salon along with fellow Americans James McNeil Whistler and John Pennell.
The Workshop; drypoint; 1913.
Sorgum Boiler (a.k.a Boiling Down the Sorgum); etching with drypoint, printed chine-collé in green-black ink.
Carver of the Madonna; drypoint; circa 1920.
With his reputation growing due to the Paris Salon, Lewis began teaching etching while living the frugal Bohemian lifestyle. One of his students was the American Donald Shaw MacLaughlan.
Lewis returned to New York in 1902 where he continue with printmaking. That same year he began making a living designing bookplates and ultimately produced over fifty. Lewis designed a bookplate for William M. Ivans, Jr., who became curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum, and another for photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
Bookplate for Wendell T. Bush and Mary L. Bush; drypoint; 1908.
Lewis became a part of Steiglitz's circle and he exhibited at Steiglitz contemporary New York gallery between February 26 and March 10, 1909. He showed forty-three etchings, drypoints and bookplates.
Allen Lewis was an Associate Member of Photo-Secession and his photograph, Winter, was included in the 1912 issue of Camera Work. He also became known for his color woodcuts. In 1914, he won a Gold Medal at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco for his printmaking. Lewis was a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Lewis taught printmaking and illustration in New York at the Art Students' League with Joseph Pennell between 1924 and 1932 and from 1932 through 1934 at the New School for Social Research.
(Under Brooklyin Bridge); drypoint; circa 1913.
(Coney Island Rollercoaster); drypoint; circa 1918.
In the 1940s with his health deteriorating, Lewis turned from producing art to studying the Old Masters and William Morris's techniques. Allen Lewis died on March 20, 1957, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
Reclining Chair; drypoint; 1908.
