Bon à Tirer: Prints from the Center Street Studio Archives

The exhibition is comprised of contemporary works by international artists that have been printed by James Stroud, master printer, artist, and founder/director of Center Street Studio in Milton, Massachusetts, since the Studio’s establishment in 1984. The Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center has been acquiring these prints since 1998 as part of the Center Street Studio Archives in the Harnett Print Study Center permanent collection. The exhibition highlights the remarkable collaboration between master printer and artist that has been the hallmark of the Center Street Studio since its beginning, producing hundreds of prints of extraordinary quality by artists of national and international reputation.

     Featuring prints from the Archives, this exhibition focuses on monotypes from several recent projects and bon à tirer prints from published editions and portfolios. Bon à tirer (often abbreviated to B.A.T.) is a French printing term, literally “good to pull,” that indicates the print is the final proof from the plate, block, or other matrix during the image development and that the artist deems to the standard for the printed edition. Monotypes are unique prints made without a matrix but printed from a plate through the press in single or multiple passes.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website