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[[image: man looking down at work table]]

Arakawa at work on lithograph in Graphicstudio, 1973. (Photo: Larry Miller.)

  It was Rosenquist's work that first attracted the attention of Robert Rauschenberg who visited the studio in late 1971 and found the environment and philosophy consistent with his working methodology. On January 1, 1972, he initiated Gra[hicstudio on an odyssey which was to expand our aesthetic sensibilities and consciousness. 

  In collaboration with Charles Ringness, Paul Clinton, and Julio Juristo, subject matter was found in the local environs. The cardboard boxes, box fragments, and paper bags were amassed in the studio, photographed by Oscar Bailey, and when Rauschenberg and the staff returned the following day, all the material was gone. Building custodians had efficiently removed it to the garbage dump. Armed with photoographs of each item, the garbage dump was ravaged by Rauschenberg, the master printers, and the studio assistants. Personnel at the dump who were bulldozing the refuse stopped their work in amazement at the affluence of people who would photograph and reclaim their own garbage. From that day forward, building custodians were only allowed in the facility when Graphicstudio staff were present. It was a sort of "Garbage on Approval Only" program.

  The techniques employed on these materials ranged from capturing the quality of a cardboard surface in lithography to the utilization of blueprinting and sepia printing. During one of many meetings, Rauschenberg in discussion with Alan Eaker decided to employ clay as a medium for reproducing his cardboard pieces. Over the succeeding months the superb skill and technical know-how of Alan Eaker were applied to create the prototype B.A.T.'s which were developed through pressmolding clay into plaster. Successive firings of the work with oxide decals partially completed te replication of writing and printing information on the original cardboard boxes. Julio Juristo was responsible for perfecting the silkscreen decals and carrying out the production of these experimental works. Tampa Clay Piece Number 5 was a reproduction of the burlap sack used to transport clay. Alan Eaker experimented extensively in an effort to retain the original burlap within the work but structural necessity required that other material be used. Michelle Juristo sewed fiberglass cloth, fashioning it after the burlap bag. Unlike burlap which burned out, the fiberglass fused at the appropriate temperature with the clay slip. The works once patinaed with damp soil gave us the feeling that alchemy had taken place as the pieces transcended a mere facsimile of material. Ordinary material was rescued from oblivion and transformed into art as we observed boxes, garbage bags, and rolls of waterproof paper become elements of Rauschenberg's vocabulary.

  Rauschenberg's earlier experiments in blueprinting stimulated his interest in purusing that technique in Graphicstudio. After research at various commercial blueprinting houses, it was found that, in in order to accomplish his expressed wishes, the process would have to be pushed beyond the then existing limits. Rauschenberg wished to use blueprinting and brown sepia printing in combination with hand lithography on large-scale prints. aul Clinton perfected the necessary procedure and technology. He was able to sensitize and develop large-scale prints on B.F.K. roll Rives, a process complicated by the fragility of the paper when wet. To complicate the process further, it was necessary to keep areas surrounding a particular image uncontaminated. This was especially necessary in Tampa Number 11 which required a combination of blueprinting and sepia printing which is chemically incompatible. The resultant imagery had rich coloration because of the deep chemical penetration of the colors into the unized paper. Respnding to Rauschenberg's needs, Graphicstudio developed blueprinting and brown sepia printing to a degree where it could be used in fine printmaking without the constraints of color fading or incompatibility with other processes. These prints, which were but a few in the Rauschenberg suite, required an entire studio to be constructed to accomodate the processing and scale; and although Paul Clinton attempted to collaborate with commercial houses, he found it necessary for the shop to construct all the support apparatus so that it could be totally self-sufficient. As a follow-up to his experimentation and as a positive educational consequence of Graphicstudio's discoveries, a number of art students effectively utilized the process for their own imagery. 

  While working on the Tampa suite, Rauschenberg expressed the desire to be a full participant in the graphc process from its very beginning to the completion of the edition. In close collaboration with Charles Ringness, Rauschenberg launched the Crops suite in which he applied solvent transfer to newsprint and magazine material to a serigraphed surface. The five editions approximated the format of the B.A.T. in each case. With the aid of the Graphicstudio staff, Rauschenberg individually laid out and designed each print. For all of us, the

FALL, 1974

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