Loosely associated with the Pop Art and Minimalist movements, the late artist known as Chryssa is recognized worldwide for her large-scale sculptures employing diverse materials –from neon and bronze to wood and found objects, including newspapers. She was also a prolific printmaker, including Newspaper Book, a portfolio of 22 offset lithographs made between March and October 1962, that took their imagery directly from the pages of newspapers. These prints break down the parts of the newspaper, highlighting its various sections: front page, classified ads, crosswords, stocks, weather maps and real estate listings, among others. Her fascination with the newspaper can be traced to her immigration from Europe to the United States in 1953 and eventual settlement in New York City in 1955, where she was struck by the onslaught of information and advertisements in places like Times Square. Confronting the instinctual structural order of the newspaper as a tool for communication, Chryssa intervened in its layout, making her mark through line, rearrangement and repetition. Her “newspaper images,” as the artist called them, include Newspaper, a transfer print in pencil on canvas that is part of The Menil Collection. This larger-than-life-sized broadsheet proclaims itself as a “Newspaper” with big, bold letters in its masthead. Below, it confronts the viewer with a deluge of indecipherable text arranged across in 25 columns. Despite its somewhat abstracted presentation, Chryssa’s Newspaper is undeniably recognizable as a staple of our quotidien existence.
-KN
