Pomegranate Communications is a publishing and printing company formerly based in
Petaluma, California
Petaluma (Miwok languages, Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 a ...
, having moved to
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
in 2013.
The company, founded by Thomas F. Burke, began by publishing works of
psychedelic art
Psychedelic art (also known as psychedelia) is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. The word "p ...
from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in 1968 under the name ThoFra Distributors.
It distributed posters for concerts at
Avalon Ballroom
The Avalon Ballroom was a music venue in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco, California, at 1244 Sutter Street (or 1268 Sutter, depending on the entrance). The space is known as the location of many concerts of the counterculture move ...
and
The Fillmore
The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California.
Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...
.
Anchored in
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...
, Pomegranate was active in book
publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
in the past as well, especially during the 1990s. Adjustments in that sector caused it to reduce involvement accordingly. Currently calendars - long a mainstay - remain a strong part of their catalog, along with coloring books for all ages, nature books and puzzles.
In its current form, Pomegranate is best described as a museum publisher, collaborating with institutions such as the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
, the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, the
Smithsonian Museum of American Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, the
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
, the
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and studio in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Open to the public for tours, Taliesin ...
, and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
. It is the
licensee
A licensee can mean the holder of a license or, in U.S. tort law, a licensee is a person who is on the property of another, despite the fact that the property is not open to the general public, because the owner of the property has allowed the li ...
for artists
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints.
Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...
,
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other w ...
,
Charley Harper
Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations.
Born Charles Burton Harper in Fr ...
,
Wolf Kahn
Wolf Kahn (October 4, 1927 – March 15, 2020) was a German-born American painter.
Kahn, known for his combination of Realism and Color Field, worked in pastel, oil paint, and printmaking. He studied under Hans Hofmann, and also graduated from ...
,
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
, and
Gustave Baumann
Gustave Baumann (June 27, 1881 – October 8, 1971) was an American printmaker and painter, and one of the leading figures of the color woodcut revival in America. His works have been shown at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, The C ...
. Its monograph by Elizabeth Murray - ''Monet’s Passion'' has been reprinted extensively, and Irene Hardwicke Olivieri's ''Closer to Wildness'' has thrived.
Books published by Pomegranate
*''Visions'', introduction by
Walter Hopps
Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...
(1977) , with works by
Cliff McReynolds
Cliff McReynolds is an American visionary painter from California. Active since the 1950s and popularly known from the 1970s on, his work has been seen in one man shows and group exhibits in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, M ...
,
Bill Martin, Thomas Akawie and
Gage Taylor
Gage Taylor (1942 – 2000) was a visionary artist known for his psychedelic-inspired landscapes. Art critic Thomas Albright wrote, "Taylor's landscape fantasies combined profuse detail with heavier, painterly surfaces and achieved a 'naive' and n ...
.
*''In Pursuit of the Unicorn'', (1980) , by Josephine Bradley, with works by Kirwan (illustrator), Susan Seddon Boulet (illustrator), Charles Ware (illustrator), Niki Broyles (illustrator), Sandy Stedronsky (illustrator), Marjette Schille (illustrator), Jay Burch (illustrator)
*''Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry'', 2010 , by Judith Patt, Barry Till, and Michiko Warkentyne
References
External links
Pomegranate website
Psychedelic art
M. C. Escher
Companies based in Portland, Oregon
Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers
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