El Retorno – Laurence Barker
Laurence Barker couching a sheet of paper with students in the Printmaking Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1963. AA3030-21. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In the broadest of brush strokes: after approximately 35 years of living in Barcelona, Spain, I returned to the United States in February 2007… Read more
Biographical Summary
I was Head of the Printmaking Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1960 to 1970. Since then I have lived and worked mostly in Barcelona while occasionally lecturing in the United States, Europe, and South America. For the better part of twenty years I have participated in the summer… Read more
Technical Considerations
To number or not to number the edition? Or, more fundamentally, do the 152 paper pieces each artist has made for this portfolio constitute an edition in the first place? The instructions and accompanying guidelines provided by Hand Papermaking keep the issue wide open. The underlying premise seems to be… Read more
Aesthetic Observations
It is a four-word statement that deserves to be carved in the lintel over the doorway to Modern Art and I don’t understand why it didn’t stop dead in its tracks the often arid debate over figurative vs. abstract art of the past century. “I paint my think,” said Paul… Read more
I Dreamt I Schlepped Paper in my Summer Pajamas and Other Confessions
In the mid-to-late sixties there appeared on the scene with little fanfare a hand paper mill called Waterleaf Mill. The world took little notice of the event because there were only fifty people to whom Waterleaf Mill announced itself. If this sounds passing strange, think sham. There were sample sheets… Read more
“Paper Trails, Douglass Howell, and how paper won its way into western art”
by Andrea Swanson Honoré In the words of Laurence Barker, “papermaking is a two thousand year old craft on the one hand and a relatively recent activity in the world of art on the other.” While both ends of this statement are of interest – paper’s history and importance as… Read more
Un Viaje desde Westbury a Chillicothe
Laurence Barker (Museu Molí Paperer – Capellades, Informatiu núm. 07, 1997) (Hand Papermaking, Summer 1997, Volume 12, Number 1) English version Prefacio Como dice el filósofo- y a mi me parece cierto- la vida se vive en dirección hacia delante, pero se entiende mirando hacia atrás. Desde que dejé Barcelona… Read more
A Journey from Westbury to Chillicothe
by Laurence Barker (versión en español) (Hand Papermaking, Summer 1997, Volume 12, Number 1) I came up with the title of this article on the spur of the moment some months ago. It seemed like a suitable way to link Douglass Howell, with whom I studied in Westbury, Long Island,… Read more
An Interview with Laurence Barker
by John Gerard (Hand Papermaking, Summer Issue 1988) Laurence Barker, born in 1930, established the first college-level papermaking workshop in the United States as part of the Printmaking Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Michigan. During the brief period of the workshop’s existence (1963 – 1970), Barker inspired… Read more
Hand Papermaking and Paper Art by Victoria Rabal, Director of the Paper Mill/Museum of Capellades, and Laurence Barker
August (dates to be announced) – Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation, Mallorca Hand Papermaking and Paper Art by Victoria Rabal, Director of the Paper Mill/Museum of Capellades, and Laurence Barker. The objective of this workshop is to provide a general overview of handmade paper with basic instruction in pulp preparation… Read more