Luigi Rist

Fish Tank

1944

Born in 1888, Luigi Rist’s contribution to American printmaking lay in his reinterpretation of traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking principles in his singular vision and technique. His introduction to printmaking came later in life when, at the age of 41, he went to Brittany to study with the painter, Sigurd Skow. Philadelphia painter Morris Blackburn was in Brittany at the same time, and the two began a friendship that lasted until Rist died in 1959. It was Blackburn who took Rist to an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints in the early 1930s at the Comerford Gallery while the two were visiting New York City. Rist was so fascinated that he returned to see the works again and again. He began experimenting with the medium, and by 1941, he had written to Blackburn describing his complete absorption in the medium. During the same year, he won his first printmaking prizes and subsequently devoted the rest of his artistic career to his highly personal woodcut creations. Rist commonly used flowers, fruits and vegetables, many of them grown by his wife, Ida, for his subject matter. While he used traditional Japanese methods, as a printmaker Rist was remarkable. He invented many of his tools, made his blocks and pigments, and developed his specialized printing techniques. To achieve the range and richness of color he required, Rist made between 25 and 100 separate impressions (pulls) to produce a single finished print. Executed with refined artistry and the most exacting craftsmanship, only two of his prints ever approached his stated edition limit of 150. Alive with vibrant color, detail and texture, Rist’s distinctive color prints are unique in both eastern and western printmaking. Rist said of his own printmaking “I became interested in this form of art because of its unlimited possibilities in color, calligraphic qualities and the many varied approaches that the medium is adapted to. This is a method of painting through the medium of printing. Each print, therefore, becomes an original with its individual quality.” Rist's color woodcuts became much sought after by renowned American print collectors Reba and Dave Williams who published The Prints of Luigi Rist, the catalog raisonné on his oeuvre. “We were fascinated by the work—its velvety texture and deep glowing colors,” Dave Williams once stated. Rist’s prints are in the collections of such major museums as the Butler Art Institute, Brooklyn Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum and London's Victoria and Albert Museum.