Irwin Hollander was a master lithographer who worked closely with many of the great Abstract Expressionist painters in the 1960s to help revive fine art printing in America. An artist himself, Hollander turned to working in commercial lithography in the 1950s to make ends meet. The company he worked for allowed Hollander to use their equipment at night for his own artistic pursuits, which caught the notice of artist June Wayne. She had recently opened Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles and invited Hollander to become their first master printer – cementing his career as a fine art printer and advocate for lithography as an art form.
Moving back to New York in the mid-1960s, Hollander set up his own print shop, Hollander Workshop, on the Lower East Side. Early works published in the workshop were by Leonard Baskin and Robert Motherwell, leading to the publishing of Portfolio 9 in 1967 which included works from nine artists: Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Lindner, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Henry Pearson, and Saul Steinberg. Following this series, Hollander went on to work with many of these artists individually and is noted for convincing Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell that their artistic styles would be well-suited to lithography, eventually leading to a significant body of prints by both artists.
Literature
Mary Lee Corlett 49
Property from the Irwin Hollander Family Collection
1967 Lithograph in colors, on Rives BFK paper, the full sheet. S. 22 x 17 in. (55.9 x 43.2 cm) Signed and numbered 39/100 in pencil (there were also 20 artist's proofs in Roman numerals and 10 unnumbered artist's proofs), published by Hollander Workshop, New York (with their blindstamp), unframed.