Will Petersen

A Matter of Aesthetics

Will Petersen, a painter, master printer and a poet, was born in Chicago. (Amer. 1928-1994) Will's formal art education began with classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. As a student at the city's Steinmetz High School, Petersen succeeded Hugh Hefner (of Playboy magazine fame) as the HS newspaper cartoonist, the Steinmetz Star. During this time, Petersen recovered from polio. In 1947 Petersen enrolled at Chicago's Wilbur Wright College. While there, he painted with oils for the first time. Two years later he enrolled at Michigan State University where he developed a strong interest in literature and writing and began printmaking. By 1951 he had begun to exhibit paintings and prints nationally. A year later he completed his master's degree. Petersen served in the United States Army from 1952-54, spending one year as an education specialist in Japan. This encounter with the Japanese culture affected his entire life. He became interested in calligraphy and Noh, classical Japanese Buddhist performance that combines elements of drama, music and poetry. Upon completion of his military service in Japan in 1955, Will Petersen settled in Oakland, California, where he met some of the most active poets of the Beat Generation: Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Phil Whalen, Mike McClure and others. Petersen was attracted to the group by their intelligence and belief in Zen Buddhism. In 1956 in his small studio in Oakland, he printed the poems of Jack Kerouac. He attended for the first time, the reading of Ginsberg's Howl at Six Gallery. His relationship with Gary Snyder had begun when both were in Kyoto, Japan; later Snyder wrote for the Plucked Chicken. Petersen returned to Japan in 1957, pursuing painting, printmaking and writing for eight years while living in Kyoto. In 1965 he accepted a faculty appointment at Ohio State University, teaching drawing, painting and printmaking. Four years later Petersen took his teaching skills to West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he concentrated on printmaking. He taught there until 1977 when he began publishing Plucked Chicken, a journal of art and poetry. In 1978 in Morgantown, Petersen and his wife, Cynthia Archer, established Plucked Chicken Press, which they later moved to Chicago and then Evanston. Petersen operated the Press until his death on April 1, 1994. 1956 In storefront studio in Oakland, California, creates signed serigraphs and lithographs. Prints poems of Jack Kerouac. 1961 Back in Japan, acquires a lithography press and stones and resumes printing lithographs. Exhibits regularly with Kyoto Printmakers. 1969 Resident lithographer at the Lakeside Studio, Lakeside, Michigan. Prints for the first time Richard Hunt lithographs. 1978 Establishes Plucked Chicken Press in Morgantown, West Virginia. Resident lithographer at Lakeside Studio in Michigan. 1980 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Chicago. Publishes lithographs by Don Crouch and Art Kleinman. 1982 Publishes Blossom, a lithograph/collage by Tom Nakashima. 1983 Series I of Plucked Chicken Press is published with work by Archer, Duckworth, Godfrey, Heagstedt, Himmelfarb, Hoff, Hunt, Martyl, Miller, Nakashima and Petersen. 1984 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Evanston. Series II of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Croydon, Ho, Archer, Torn, Osver, Middaugh, Roseberry, Petersen, Spiess-Ferris and Hoppock. 1985 Series III of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Driesbach, Hunt, Trupp, Gregor, Pattison, Conger, Evans, Weygandt, Archer, Ho and Petersen. Prints Suite I, Northern Illinois University Collectors Series, with lithographs by Renie Adams, David Bower, David Driesbach, Carl Hayano and Ben Mahmoud...

Recently graduated from Pasadena’s legendary Art Center College of Design, Tom Baldwin created the series of inkjet prints Japanese Gardens in 1996 on his computer, using then-nascen...

This piece is a limited edition, pencil signed by the artist on the print and in the plate. It is part of my private collection of artists from the School of Paris era. It is in very...

Artist: Joseph Zirker (American, born 1924) Title: Untitled Year: 1988 Medium: Color monotype Paper: Arche 88 Size: 42 x 30 inches Signature: Signed and dated in pencil by the artist Printer: The artist Condition: Very good Frame: Unframed About the artist. Joseph Zirker is a noted American modern artist, educator, lecturer that was born on August 13, 1924 in Los Angeles, California, United States. As a young man he Served with United States Navy, from 1944 to 1946. He attended the University of California in Los Angeles 1946—1947. He got a bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Denver in 1949 and a master of Fine Arts, University Southern California, 1951. He was a printer and research fellow at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, 1961—1963. Lecturer University Southern California, 1963. Instructor Los Angeles County Art Institute, 1964, San Jose City College, California, 1966—1980. Lecturer Stanford University, 1981—1983, 1986—1990. All along his carer, he had numerous acclaimed shows in the U.S and abroad. He is known worldwide as an innovator in monotype and printmaking. His works are represented in private and public collections, both in the USA and worldwide, including: Grunwald Collection, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, California, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Free Library of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June Wayne, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California Tamarind Archives, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California, Charles White, Los Angeles, California Stanley Freeman Collection, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California Ben Smith...