Willard Clark: Printer & Printmaker

As with many young artists of the Santa Fe art colony, Willard Clark, the recognized American printmaker, was on his way to somewhere else when he landed in Santa Fe in 1928. He ended up spending a lifetime there creating a unique body of wood engravings. Carving his own wood blocks as illustrations for commercial job printing, Clark’s illustrations and original typographic design came to define the look of Santa Fe as a destination for travelers in the 1930s and ’40s seeking southwestern experiences and colorful locales. Originally released in a hand-bound limited edition, Willard Clark: Printer & Printmaker is being reissued in an expanded trade edition that includes numerous black-and-white and color illustrations of the beautiful woodblock illustrations that made Clark famous. This is the definitive work on Clark and explores both his life and his printmaking. Clark trained at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City and then studied with Charles W. Hawthorne, founder of the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, before moving to study commercial art in Indianapolis. Clark’s training served him well when he became Santa Fe’s fulltime job printer, handling the commercial work for the local hotels, restaurants, and the social and business scene. Included in Willard Clark: Printer & Printmaker are illustrations of his menus, “do not disturb” signs, letterhead, and advertisements, all created with the finely crafted artistic sensibility that came to define the look of Santa Fe and record some of its richest cultural moments. His images: burros laden with wood, Spanish women clad in shawls, adobe churches and village became synonymous with the city, but also developed a new category in American art as well.Collectors vigorously seek Clark’s prints because of their beauty of subject, their artistry, and the technical precision Clark applied to his craft. This book is a must for anyone interested in folk art, printmakers and printmaking, New Mexican art and culture, and the beautiful renderings of internationally renowned artist Willard Clark.