“Egg Series I: Red Vise” 51-Screens Serigraph by Joe Price

Soft and elegant 51-screen serigraph by Joe Price (American, b. 1935). This piece has the appearance of an oil painting, due to the uncharacteristically high number of screens used in the creation (51 passes). Titled, numbered, signed, and dated along the lower edge (“Egg Series I: Red Vise 69/100 © Joe Price ’86 imp.”). Presented in a new double mat of gray and cream. Image size: 9″H x 7″W.

Price, working with a chemical company began to use a special transparent base into which he was able to mix very small amounts of his oils. In this process, using multiple applications of extremely thin, transparent layers, he would gradually build up the layers of paint so they would appear to be opaque and create depth in the image. The light could pass through these layers and give a three-dimensional quality to his image. Price could then achieve a more painterly approach to serigraphy.

Joe Price (American, b. 1935) was born in Ferriday, Louisiana. He attended Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois receiving a Bachelor of Science in 1957, and did his graduate work at Stanford University. Now retired from the College of San Mateo art faculty (1970-1994), Price is famous for creating serigraphs using an average of 70 screens (and as many as, in one instance, 106!)

Price has exhibited widely, including one-man exhibitions at the Ankrum Gallery, LA, 1984; New Talent in Printmaking, Associated American Artists, New York and Philadelphia, 1984; Boise State University Museum of Art, Idaho, 1980; Editions Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 1977; Peninsula Museum of Art, Burlingame, CA, 2013
During the mid-1990s, Price developed an allergic reaction t the toxic fumes associated with screen printing and he did not feel that he could replicate his depth of colors and tones in water-based color. When Price moved from San Mateo to Los Angeles in 1999 he divested himself of his printing equipment, never to print again.
He has also been included in numerous Regional, National, and International printmaking exhibitions. His work is included in permanent collections of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; the Library of Congress; Activision, Sunnyvale; Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino; Foster Farms, Menlo Park; Lawrey’s Seasoning, LA; Kraft Collection, Chicago and many others.