The "Ann Chernow - Picasso Project" that opens at Housatonic Communuity College Feb. 19 shows Chernow's works and the Picasso prints they relate to.

NEW EXHIBIT AT HOUSATONIC MUSEUM OF ART

BRIDGEPORT – “Ann Chernow- Picasso Project,” an exhibit of prints by Westport artist Ann Chernow that explores the printing techniques of Pablo Picasso, will be on display at the Housatonic Museum of Art Feb. 12-March 22.
The exhibit represents the creative collaboration of artist Chernow and master printer James Reed. Together, they explored the techniques used by Picasso, discovering new ways to replace toxic media used during Picasso's time, and incorporating them into Chernow's original works of art.
“Chernow and Reed have extended Picasso’s original methods,” said author Herbert Lust. “Going beyond Picasso’s images as a point of departure, they now have a compatibility with the drama of his printmaking.”
“Not having detailed information about the methods and materials used by Picasso and his printers, and given today’s constraints due to the banning of many formerly used toxic printmaking materials, Chernow and Reed have created an astonishingly varied body of work which is both a homage to Picasso and an original and provocative oeuvre.”
In printmaking, the artist works on the equivalent of a plate, be it stone, metal, linoleum, wood, or another substance. Then, the “plate” is inked, and the finished work of art printed. The finished work reflects both the artist’s creation on the plate and the master printer’s skills in printing the work.
“It is important to understand that copying Picasso was not the intent of this project,” Chernow says. “All images are experiments that were attempts to render the ‘look’ of certain surfaces and attain the dramas of certain Picasso prints.”
The project began in 2002, when Chernow and Reed were admiring an original Picasso lithograph entitled “White Bust on Black.”
“This dramatic black and white lithograph had an extraordinary visual energy,” Chernow says. “I wanted to produce a similar print using my own subject matter. It looked deceptively easy to do.”
Reed, however, told her it was much more complicated than it looked. The pair then began to experiment to determine how Picasso arrived at the print. Their first three attempts were less than pleasing: they did not result in the ‘look’ of the Picasso work.
They then turned to the book Picasso Lithographs by Fernand Mourlot, which noted basic information for the technique used for each image. “I decided to delve further into producing a series of prints that would emulate the ‘look’ of a varied group of lithographs and linoleum cuts.
One problem they discovered was that some of Mourlot’s information was so basic that it did not show how to proceed with a chosen image. “Jim (Reed) discovered through trial and error how to achieve the effect of an emulation of Picasso’s surfaces,” Chernow recalls.
The end result of their research and experiments is the series from which the images on display at Housatonic have been drawn. Accompanying each of Chernow’s works will be a copy of the Picasso work to which it relates, an explanation of why Chernow chose that particular image, and comments about the printing methods Reed used in making the print.
The exhibit will be on display at the Burt Chernow Galleries, named for Chernow’s late husband who was founder of the Housatonic Museum of Art, at HCC Feb. 19-March 22.
Chernow will discuss the project on Feb. 19 at 1:30 p.m. in the Galleries, located in HCC’s Lafayette Hall, The event is free and open to the public.
The Housatonic Museum of Art is on the campus of Housatonic Community College at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 and Rte 8 in downtown Bridgeport, one block from the Arena at Harbor Yard.

Editor's note: This is a press release by Housatonic Community College