NEWSLETTER
3:30 and 5 pm Thursday, November 14
Glens Falls, NY — What started as an aspiring musician creating a poster for his band's gigs turned into a career for Nathan Meltz.The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin, which has one of the nation's top printmaking programs, when his band needed advertising and merchandise.
"I applied my printmaking knowledge and that continued to evolve, until my print work was based in different social movements," he said.
Meltz will lead Propaganda Print Party, a hands-on workshop introducing teenagers and young adults to printing, at 3:30 and 5 pm Thursday, November 14, at The Hyde Collection. The free event examines the role of screen printing as a tool of social protest and cultural expression.
Participants will design paper stencils expressing a message of their choice, using drawn images. The stencils will be transferred to silkscreens, which participants will be able to apply on a surface of their choice.
"Screen prints have become an important part of history, since the first time they were part of a political and social movement," Meltz said.
Much of Meltz's work since has been rooted in social movements, which is typical of the art form, he said. In the mid-twentieth century, screen printing fueled student protests, most notably in Paris in 1968, when the École des Beaux-Arts was turned into a workshop for revolutionary messages.
"Screen printing is a very immediate printmaking form," Meltz said, making it accessible and inexpensive. "It doesn't require some of the laborious steps other printmaking does."
That's not to say it's simple. "There's really robust complexity, once you get into it, but it's pretty easy to step into and get the basics," he said.
At RPI, Meltz teaches printmaking, 2D animation, 2D design, and graphic storytelling. In his own artwork, he examines how technology has wormed its way into every part of our lives.
"Nathan offers great insight into the power of screen printing, a relatively simple gateway to more complex printmaking," said Jenny Hutchinson, The Hyde's curator of Museum education and programming. "He's able to break down the art form — in which he is highly skilled — to teach young people the basics and let them create their own messages, whether it be a sign promoting a club, or a serious social issue."
Teenagers and young adults of all art experience and skill levels (and that includes those who have never tried printmaking) are welcome to attend this free workshop, which is funded through the generosity of the Robert Lehman Foundation.
The first session begins at 3:30 pm and is nearly booked. The second session begins at 5 pm. Reservations are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
TO REGISTER, contact Hutchinson at 518-792-1761, ext. 327, or jhutchinson@hydecollection.org
What is The Hyde?
The Hyde Collection is one of the Northeast’s exceptional small art museums with distinguished collections of European, American, Modern, and Contemporary art. Its permanent collection of more than 5,000 works spans centuries and consists of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, furniture, and decorative arts. The core collection, amassed by Museum founders Louis and Charlotte Hyde, includes works by such European masters as Sandro Botticelli, Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Americans Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, and James McNeill Whistler. The Museum’s collection of Modern and Contemporary art features works by Josef Albers, Dorothy Dehner, Sam Gilliam, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, George McNeil, Robert Motherwell, Ben Nicholson, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bridget Riley. The Hyde Collection presents changing exhibitions in its five galleries, as well as lectures, cultural events, family activities, and school programming in its modern museum complex and historic house at 161 Warren St., Glens Falls.
Also at The Hyde
Picasso, Braque & Léger
Wood Gallery
October 6 to January 5
Picasso, Braque, & Léger: Twentieth Century Modern Masters explores the three Modern masters’ shared love of the printed word. An exhibition of more than eighty prints by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Fernard Léger examines their relationships with Contemporary writers, playwrights, and poets, and the artists’ dedication to creating imagery that interpreted modern texts. Organized by Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions, and sponsored by Marvin & Company, P.C.; Mr. and Mrs. Karl E. Seitz; Silverwood Home & Galleries; and Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson.
Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region
Hoopes, Feibes & Schmitt, and Rotunda galleries
October 11 to December 4
In this year’s Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region, guest juror Victoria Palermo interprets submissions and develops an exhibition that responds to the issue of environmental change. As one of the nation’s longest-running regional juried exhibition, AMHR features the works of artists living within 100 miles of Albany. Palermo presents an exhibition that depicts ideals of landscape — past, present, and of the artists’ imaginings; examines the impact of environmental degradation; and asks what can be done about it.
For More Information:
Rhonda Triller
Director of Communications
The Hyde Collection
518-792-1761, ext. 320
rtriller@hydecollection.org
Photo: Nathan Meltz, an artist and professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will lead a Print Propaganda Party on Thursday, November 14, at The Hyde Collection. The free workshop is open to teenagers and young adults interested in learning about how printmaking has fueled social and political revolution, and in how to make their own screen prints. ABOVE: Meltz's prints are seen.