The National Serigraph Society was founded in 1940 by a group of artists involved in the WPA

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

, including

Anthony Velonis Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

Max Arthur Cohn Max Arthur Cohn (1903–1998) was an American artist, born in England. His family emigrated to the United States when he was two years old. Cohn was one of the artists employed by the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the G ...

, and

Hyman Warsager Hyman J. Warsager (1909–1974) was an American artist known for his printmaking. Biography Warsager was born in 1909 in New York City. He attended the Pratt Institute, the Grand Central School of Art, and the American Artists School. He worked ...

. The creation of the society coincided with the rise of

serigraph Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

s being used as a medium for fine art. Originally called the ''Silk Screen Group'', the name was soon changed to the ''National Serigraph Society''. The National Serigraph Society had its own gallery, the ''Serigraph Gallery'' at 38 West 57th Street in New York City. They published a quarterly newsletter called the "Serigraph Quarterly." The Society had lectures, published prints, and coordinated traveling shows. In "The Complete Printmaker: Techniques, Traditions, Innovations", the authors wrote that this organization, by 1940, had an active program of "traveling exhibits, lectures, and portfolios of prints (that) helped to sustain and broaden interest in the serigraph. Artists such as

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was born ...

, Mervin Jules, Ruth Gikow, Edward Landon, and Hyman Warsager were intrigued by the medium". In their 1970 book “Silk-Screen Printing for Artists & Craftsmen”, Mathilda V. and James A. Schwalbach wrote that a “major force in the development of serigraphy as a fine art was the formation in 1940 of the National Serigraph Society. It has set standards of excellence and has sent hundreds of exhibitions of its members’ work to countries all over the world. These exhibitions are responsible for a good deal of museum interest in the purchase of original prints as part of museum collections”. J.I. Biegeleisen and Max Arthur Cohn (a co-founder of the Society noted above), writing in 1942 about the origin and development of serigraphy, observed: "Specially noteworthy has been the work of the National Serigraph Society, New York, which has been the source of inspiration, clearing house, and temple of artists and print makers everywhere. The National Serigraph Society and its active director, Doris Meltzer, have been largely responsible for promoting this new print form and raising it to the level of a museum art form"..

Dallas Museum of Art Exhibits

In 1944, 1947, and 1951 the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

held exhibitions of the National Serigraph Society. The artists listed in the checklists for these shows include: * Adolf Aldrich * Virginia (Vae) Barnes * Charles Barrows * B. Berkman-Hunter * Sarah Berman * George Beyer * Joseph Biel (1891-1943) * Morris Blackburn * Dorr Bothwell * William Boughton * Louis Bunce * Ruth Chaney *

* Marion Cunningham * Frank Davidson *

Roy DeCarava Roy Rudolph DeCarava (December 9, 1919 – October 27, 2009) was an American artist. DeCarava received early critical acclaim for his photography, initially engaging and imaging the lives of African Americans and jazz musicians in the communi ...

* James Egleson * Ray Euffa * Francine Felsenthal * Harold Fiedler * Richard Floethe * Arthur Flory * Syd Fossum * Louise A. Freedman * Ruth Gikow * Maxwell Gordon *

Harry Gottlieb Harry Gottlieb (September 23, 1895 – July 4, 1992) was an American painter, screen printer, lithographer, and educator. Biography Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, Romania on September 23, 1895. He immigrated to America in 1907, and his family s ...

* F. Wynn Graham *

Lena Gurr Lena Gurr (1897–1992), was an American artist who made paintings, prints, and drawings showing, as one critic said, "the joys and sorrows of everyday life." Another critic noted that her still lifes, city scenes, and depictions of vacation ...

Robert Gwathmey Robert Gwathmey (January 24, 1903 – September 21, 1988) was an American social realist painter. His wife was photographer Rosalie Gwathmey(September 15, 1908 – February 12, 2001) and his son was architect Charles Gwathmey (June 19, 1938 – ...

* Abraham P. Hankins *

Hananiah Harari Hananiah Harari (August 29, 1912 – July 19, 2000) was an American painter and illustrator. Life Harari was born Richard (Dick) Falk Goldman, in Rochester, New York. He studied at the Syracuse University School of Fine Arts. He went to Paris i ...

* Riva Helfond * August Henkel * Philip Hicken * Ernest Hoff * Ernest Hopf * Hoyt Howard * Marion Huse * William H. Johnson * Mervin Jules * Dora Kaminsky * Charles Keller (1914-2006) * Robert Leland Kiley * Bernard A. Kohn * Chet La More * Edward Landon * Gretchen Lansford * Gladys M. Lux * Guy Maccoy * Marie R. Macpherson *

Beatrice Mandelman Beatrice Mandelman (December 31, 1912 – June 24, 1998), known as Bea, was an American abstract artist associated with the group known as the Taos Moderns. She was born in Newark, New Jersey to Anna Lisker Mandelman and Louis Mandelman, Jewish i ...

* Henry Mark * James H. Mcconnell * Joseph Meert * Doris Meltzer * Isaac Lane Muse *

Elizabeth Olds Elizabeth Olds (December 10, 1896 – March 4, 1991) was an American artist known for her work in developing silkscreen as a fine arts medium. She was a painter and illustrator, but is primarily known as a printmaker, using silkscreen, woodcut, ...

* Geno Pettit * William Herbert Plant * Herbert William Pratt * Leonard Pytlak * Mildred Rackley * Joseph Rajer * Hulda D. Robbins * Ruth Starr Rose * Harry Shokler * Harry Shoulberg *

Kurt Sluizer Kurt Sluizer (April 26, 1911 – November 14, 1988) was a Dutch-born American artist. Biography Sluizer was born on April 26, 1911, in Amsterdam. He attended the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts). In 1936, he and ...

* Bernard Steffen *

Harry Sternberg Harry Sternberg (1904–2001), was an American painter, printmaker and educator. He taught at the Art Students League of New York, from 1933 to c. 1966. Biography Childhood, family life, and education Sternberg's parents had immigrated from Russ ...

* Abram Tromka * Russell Twiggs * Mary Van Blarcom * Albert Urban *

* Sylvia Wald *

* Carol Weinstock * Sol Wilson

References

{{Authority control American artist groups and collectives Arts organizations