60 Years of Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) in Los Angeles

Partnering with some of the 20th century’s most acclaimed artists, Gemini has played an integral role in the story of American printmaking, continually pushing technical boundaries.

Two related installations from the MFAH collection of prints and drawings spotlight important works from a legacy press known for its forward-thinking approach.

60 Years of Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) in Los Angeles centers on prints executed at Gemini G.E.L., a Los Angeles–based organization that marks its 60th anniversary this year. Launched by Sidney B. Felsen, Stanley Grinstein, and Kenneth Tyler in 1966, Gemini quickly became the West Coast destination for innovative printmaking, attracting such notable figures as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella with its reputation for never dismissing artists’ ideas as impossible. A testament to the years of experimentation and creative freedom facilitated by the press, 60 Years of Gemini G.E.L. features exemplary prints from Gemini’s early days to the past decade, and showcases a variety of techniques, including lithography, etching, and aquatint.

In the adjacent gallery, Serial Lines and Scribbled Dreams: Frank Stella and Claes Oldenburg at Gemini G.E.L. focuses on a pair of portfolios by Stella and Oldenburg, neither of whom had printmaking practices before collaborating with Gemini in the late 1960s. Stark and austere, Stella’s Black Series II reinterprets his black stripe paintings as lithographs, and Oldenburg’s Notes speaks to its creator’s prodigious imagination, presenting whimsical ideas for monuments derived from approximately 100 pages of sketches.

These installations are presented in conjunction with PrintHouston, a biennial celebration of prints, the artists who create them, and the people who collect them.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website