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goal of the project, according to Solodkin. The result was Ballade Triste (1982). Using colored pulps that Kushner had made, Twinrocker executed the central female image of Ballade Triste in an edition of 15. After receiving the handmade-paper edition in New York, Kushner drew on two lithograph stones, registering them to the template; then he and Solodkin printed them, with the result that certain colors in the paper were heightened or otherwise changed. Kushner found that "combining handmade paper with lithography and fabric resulted in a more satisfying color image" than with handmade paper alone. The artist speaks with enthusiasm, though, about the special advantages of handmade paper, especially its usefulness "in laying in large areas of color." He estimates that "it would have taken eight litho runs" to create Ballade Triste otherwise. He describes his experience this way: "Handmade paper fits my way of working almost perfectly. It's a fast medium, and once put down can't be fooled around with. The possibility of different textures is very appealing to me." Kushner also likes the "wet and juicy" feel of paper pulp. HANDMADE-PAPER PRINTS ALSO INCLUDE those works executed in handmade paper that, although they involve no printing techniques, are classified as prints. A striking case in point is Chuck Close's recent investigation of handmade paper. Since 1981 he and Joseph Wilfer, now located in New York, have collaborated on a unique body of work which has clearly demonstrated that, as Wilfer has noted: "You can edition paper. You can do color separations in pulp." The two have executed handmade-paper editions at Dieu Donne Press of some of the artist's most popular and instantly recognizable images, including portraits of Close regulars Keith, Phil and Robert and his own bearded self-portrait. Using a color-coded drawing of the desired image as their pattern, Close and Wilfer squirted squeeze bottles filled with liquefied pulp in 22 gradated shades going from black to white into the squares of a grid module placed on a [[image]] Max Gimblett, Within, 1980, paper pulp, 20 inches square. The artist stresses the indissoluble union of color, form and space. [[image]] Kenneth Noland has worked with handmade paper since 1976. Here, II-11, 1978, 49 1/2 by 34 inches, from the "Horizontal Stripes" series. background sheet of paper. Besides the different-colored background sheets-white, black, and gray were used-variations in scale, texture and tonal intensity distinguish the editions. The most impressive images are the most altered. In Self-Portrait/Manipulated (1982), for example, Close reworked the surface while it was still moist and broke up the regularity of the grid structure. In doing so, he left impressions of his handprints on the surface. The evidence of his touch not only lends an exciting gestural element but brings out a riveting psychological dimension in the image. The illusion of a face seeming to simultaneously fade in and fade out imparts a dynamic quality to the surface. These handmade-paper editions, then, demonstrate the capacity of the highly malleable material of paper pulp to communicate feeling. The experience has had an effect on Close's other work as well, as seen in the recent paper collages, which come directly out of the handmade-paper editions and represent an expressive new direction for him. For Joe Zucker, doing a handmade-paper print comes naturally, given the artist's technique of painting with acrylic-soaked and Rhoplex-stained cotton balls. His "Candles" (1980), a series of 36 monoprints, represents an intriguing variation on the types of handmade-paper prints discussed above. Here, a silkscreen outline on a sheet of paper, depicting a burning candle in a holder dripping wax, is filled in like a matrix with layers of paper pulp. Working with glue solution and buckets of dyes, Zucker varied the colors and textures in each example. Executed in collabora- OCTOBER 1983/83
