NUMBER ONE, 1967
[screenprint title]
Norman Ives
[New Haven, CT: Ives-Sillman, Inc.], 1967. First impression: “Made for this first issue of Eye in an edition of 5,000 copies [folio cover].” A pristine 4-color silkscreen print signed in plate with tissue guard housed in a nearly fine example of the Publishers folder.
8.5 x 12-inch 4-color silkscreen print with tissue guard housed in Publishers folder. This print was issued to accompany the first issue of Eye, Magazine of the Yale Arts Association, published by Yale Arts Association in 1967. Judging from the exceptional condition of this print it does not seem to have been issued with the magazine, since the image size slightly exceeded the journals’ trim size, thus guaranteeing some wear to the outer edges.
“In his collages, segments of letter-forms maintain the integrity of their graphic origins but now appear to combine and recombine to produce new configurations which ail visually for something more than factual meaning.” — Sewell Sillman, 1977
An innovative artist and designer, Norman Ives (American, 1923-1978) pioneered the use of type and letterforms as primary subjects for his designs. A student of Josef Albers, Ives taught at the Yale University School of Art from 1952 until his death in 1978, finding success in a multi-faceted career as an artist, designer, publisher, and teacher.
Long before Andy Warhol, artists had been enticed by the means of creating multiple images of their creations. Durer, Rembrandt, Matisse and Braque were masters of this extension of their art. As a student at Wesleyan University and at Yale University, Norman Ives showed an early interest in print making. There is clear evidence of his dexterity and passion for the various print-making media.
When Ives and his former classmate Sewell Sillman created Ives Sillman, Inc., its primary aim was to produce a portfolio of screen-prints from Josef Albers’s paintings. The success of these stunning translations brought offers to do the same for other leading artists. Ives Sillman, Inc. became widely respected for the quality of their printing and the elegance of their portfolio design.
Both Ives and Sillman used the same technology to publish limited editions of their own work. Ives utilized that technology as a means to explore varying color relationships. With little cost or time, using the same set of screens, new colors might be applied to the same composition. His insatiable curiosity was more the driving force for the process rather than print sales.
Typical of Ives’s denial of boundaries, there were effortless moves from collage to screen print and from painting to screen print. This constant searching and researching were integral to Ives’s process. [Norman S. Ives Foundation]