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Tandem Press

Judy Pfaff: Kantha Series

Judy Pfaff: Kantha Series

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Judy Pfaff: Kantha Series features the newest editions that Judy Pfaff completed at Tandem Press. While working on this series, Pfaff took a break to chat with our director Paula Panczenko. During that conversation she said, “I went to India and I thought I knew a lot about color, but I realized I didn’t know anything about India’s vibrant and exotic colors.” Pfaff’s work has always been characterized by vitality, but, in response to her experience in India, these pieces lean more heavily on color rather than structure or form to generate energy and movement.

 

In some of the work, such as ...two foxes..., Pfaff used extremely saturated colors, allowing them to flow into each other, almost clashing, but with enough control to retain harmony. In other works, she used color with a more restrained hand. This series is also marked by the presence

of patterns that reference the kantha quilts made from recycled saris that Pfaff encountered in the Indian markets. The term raga appears in the titles of three of the larger works - a succinct metaphor for Pfaff’s working process. Just as a raga is a melodic pattern in Indian music used as a framework for improvisation, Pfaff used pattern as a backbone for the work while leaving plenty of room for her to do what she does best - improvise..

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Image: Judy Pfaff, ...wind-deer and the honey-grass...

1 Pfaff_wind-deer and the honey-grass-fr

Judy Pfaff

…wind-deer and the honey-grass…, 2017

Woodcut, hand painted dye and ink, archival inkjet, clear plastic film

Varied edition of 12 49 1/4 x 105 inches framed
$18,500 framed

2 Pfaff_Morning Raga-framed_web - Sona P

Judy Pfaff

Morning Raga, 2017

Woodcut, hand painted dye, archival inkjet

Varied edition of 12

49 1/4 x 101 1/4 inches framed

$16,500 framed

Judy Pfaff working in the Tandem Press Studio. Image courtesy of Tandem Press.

3 Pfaff_Afternoon Raga-framed_web - Sona

Judy Pfaff

Afternoon Raga, 2017
Woodcut, hand painted dye, archival inkjet
Varied edition of 12
49 1/4 x 101 1/4 inches framed
$16,500 framed

4 Pfaff_Evening Raga-framed_web - Sona P

Judy Pfaff
Evening Raga, 2017
Woodcut, hand painted dye, archival inkjet
Varied edition of 12
49 1/4 x 101 1/4 inches framed
$16,500 framed

I don’t think about beauty. I think about juxtapositions and color relationships that accelerate each element, so it becomes vibrant. “Beauty” is an elusive word to me. If something was just beautiful, I couldn’t abide by that.

-Judy Pfaff, excerpt from an interview with James Barron
https://www.milesmcenery.com/news/judy-pfaff-upstate-diary

5 Pfaff_Fortunate Fish-framed_web - Sona
6 Pfaff_two foxes-framed_web - Sona Past

Judy Pfaff
…two foxes…, 2017
Woodcut, hand painted dye, colored silver leaf, archival inkjet
Varied edition of 30, 48 x 70 inches framed
$11,500 framed

Judy Pfaff

…fortunate fish…, 2017
Woodcut, hand painted dye, archival inkjet
Varied edition of 12
49 1/4 x 105 inches framed
$17,500 framed

Judy Pfaff working in the Tandem Press Studio. Image courtesy of Tandem Press.

7 Pfaff_The three fishes-framed_web - So

Judy Pfaff

The three fishes, 2017 
Woodcut, hand painted dye, colored silver leaf
Varied edition of 30
57 x 37 1/2 inches framed
$10,000 framed

Judy Pfaff

…and the crane thought…, 2017
Woodcut, hand painted dye, colored silver leaf
Varied edition of 24
47 x 37 1/2 inches framed
$9,500 framed

8 Pfaff_and the crane thought-framed_web

Tandem Press exhibition at EXPO Chicago 2017. Image courtesy of Tandem Press.

9 Pfaff_Foreseeable Future-framed_web -

Judy Pfaff
Foreseeable Future, 2017
Intaglio, blend rolled aluminum, chine collé
Varied edition of 18
16 x 76 inches framed
$7,500 framed

Pfaff_Unforeseeable Future-framed_web.jp

Judy Pfaff
Unforeseeable Future, 2017
Intaglio, blend rolled aluminum, chine collé
Varied edition of 18
16 x 76 inches framed
$7,500 framed

Judy Pfaff

Judy Pfaff (b. 1946) was born in London and immigrated to the US at the age of thirteen. She received her BFA from Washington University and her MFA from Yale University. From the beginning of her career in the 1970s, Pfaff has worked with a wide and unusual range of materials and moves back and forth easily between two- and three-dimensional work, creating art that is complex, profuse, and unique. Her dynamic, exuberant, large-scale works incorporate many different media. Like her installations, Pfaff’s prints have a three-dimensional presence and flowing quality with layered circles, lines and organic shapes echoing throughout the images. To bring the overall compositions together, her prints are often completed with hand-applied paints, fabric dyes, and layers of collaged elements. Her innovative work has brought her wide acclaim from galleries and museums throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and her work can be found in such prestigious collections as the Detroit Institute of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Among many other awards and accolades, Pfaff was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2004 and was featured in PBS’s Art 21 in 2007. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2014 and a National Academy Award for Excellence in Sculpture in 2015.

Tandem Press can be reached at:

phone: +1 (608) 263-3437
email: [email protected]

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1743 Commercial Avenue 
Madison, WI 53704

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Or visit online at tandempress.wisc.edu

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