ULAE: Prints for a New Generation

The Print Center is pleased to present ULAE: Prints for a New Generation. While Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) is well known for its central role in reviving lithography in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, this exhibition extols its enduring importance as a site of conceptually adventurous and technically ambitious printmaking during the 1980s and 90s. Works by nine leading contemporary masters made at ULAE – Carroll Dunham, Jane Hammond, Bill Jensen, Julian Lethbridge, Suzanne McClelland, Elizabeth Murray, Susan Rothenberg, Kiki Smith and Terry Winters – demonstrate this vital pulse.

We are grateful to the Universal Limited Art Editions team, Jill Czarnowski, Larissa Goldston, Marie Tennyson and Jordan West, for embracing this project with enthusiasm.

A New Generation

At the beginning of the 1980s and again in the early 1990s, ULAE invited rising artists to work in its printmaking studio. They were granted generous amounts of time and unrestricted access to a newly constructed, state-of-the-art printmaking facility. There they worked on a number of presses and workstations dedicated to an expanded array of processes – lithography, offset printing, intaglio, photogravure, monoprint and screenprint – staffed by several highly skilled master printers. One artist confirmed the studio’s unique position to offer unrestricted creative freedom, reflecting that “only at ULAE could I have worked for two years on a 5” x 7” plate.”

Prints from the 1980s by Carroll Dunham, Bill Jensen, Elizabeth Murray, Susan Rothenberg and Terry Winters reveal an expressionistic abstraction, allowing obscured or momentary glimpses into the lived world. Those made in the 1990s by Jane Hammond, Julian Lethbridge and Suzanne McClelland, are more varied in their styles and interests reflecting a movement among artists to account for various social and political concerns.

All images courtesy of Universal Limited Art Editions. All works published by Universal Limited Art Editions.

About the Artists

Carroll Dunham (b. 1949, New Haven, CT; l. New York, NY and Cornwall, CT) received a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, CT. Dunham made his print at ULAE in 1984. He was the subject of a mid-career painting retrospective at the New Museum, New York, NY in 2002-2003; a traveling survey of his prints accompanied by a catalog raisonné was organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA in 2008. Most recently, an exhibition of his prints was mounted at the National Museum, Oslo, Norway in 2002. His work is represented in notable public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; as well as the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Tate Gallery, London, UK; and Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria.

Jane Hammond (b. 1950, Bridgeport, CT; l. New York, NY) received a BA from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, and an MFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Hammond made her first print at ULAE in 1991. She has also made prints at Dieu Donné and Pace Prints, both in New York, NY; and Shark’s Ink, Lyons, CO, among other studios. Her works on paper were featured in a nationally-touring retrospective, accompanied by a catalog, organized by the Mount Holyoke Art Museum in 2006-2008, and additional touring solo shows were organized by the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, OH in 2001 and Orlando Museum of Art, FL, in 1994. Hammond has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and is a Governor at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME.

Bill Jensen (b. 1945, Minneapolis, MN; l. Brooklyn, NY) received a BFA and an MFA from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Jensen made his first print at ULAE in 1984. His work was featured in Five Painters in New York at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 1984 and was the subject of a retrospective organized at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, in 1987. Recently, his work was featured within an exhibition on Albert Pinkham Ryder at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, MA, in 2021. Jensen’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; and Hirschhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC among others. He was the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Julian Lethbridge (b. 1947, Colombo, Sri Lanka; l. New York, NY) studied at Westchester College, Winchester and Cambridge University, both UK. Lethbridge made his first print at ULAE in 1990. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe, including at the Aspen Art Museum, CO; Katonah Museum of Art, NY; Portland Art Museum, OR; and Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and Tate Gallery, London, UK.

Suzanne McClelland (b. 1959, Jacksonville, FL; l. Brooklyn, NY) received a BFA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an MFA from School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. McClelland made her first print at ULAE in 1993. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at the Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Orlando Museum of Art, FL; and Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT. McClelland received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Anonymous Was a Woman award. She is a Governor at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME; and is on faculty at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY.

Elizabeth Murray (b. 1940, Chicago, IL; d. 2007, Granville, NY) earned a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, IL and an MFA from Mills College, Oakland, CA. Murray made her first print at ULAE in 1986. She had career retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, in 2005-2006 and Dallas Museum of Art in 1987, and her prints were the subject of a traveling survey and catalog in 1990. She has received many awards, including a Skowhegan Medal in Painting and a MacArthur Fellowship, and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Throughout her career, Murray also worked as an educator in the most prestigious art programs in the United States.

Susan Rothenberg (b. 1945, Buffalo, NY; d. 2020, Galisteo, NM) received a BFA from Cornell University Ithaca, NY and studied at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC. Rothenberg made her first print at ULAE in 1983. She was the American representative to the Venice Biennale in 1980 and had numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, in 2020. She was the subject of traveling retrospectives organized by the Los Angeles County
Museum, CA, in 1983, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, in 1994, and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, in 2009-2010. The Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, organized an exhibition of her prints and drawings in 1998.

Kiki Smith (b. 1954, Nuremberg, West Germany; l. New York, NY) attended Hartford Art School, CT. Smith made her first print at ULAE in 1990. Solo exhibitions of her works on paper were presented at Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, in 2019; Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, in 2017; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, in 2003-2004; Saint Louis Art Museum, MO in 2000; and Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA in 1992. In addition to her ongoing collaboration with ULAE, Smith has produced editions and multiples with numerous publishers including Harlan & Weaver, The LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, and Pace Editions, all New York, NY; and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA.

Terry Winters (b. 1949, Brooklyn, NY; l. New York, NY) received a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Winters made his first print at ULAE in 1982. He has had exhibitions of his prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, in 2001; and Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, in 2024; as well as the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, Germany and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in 2014. His complete print archive is located at the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME. Winters was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2013.