This is a lithograph with embossing by American abstract expressionist artist Adja Yunkers. It is titled Aegean I and comes from a portfolio Poems for Marie-Jose by Octavio Paz published in 1967. It is an edition of 25, with 5 lithographs and sheets of poems by Octavio Paz. This is #19 of 25. The portfolio was printed by Hollander Workshop, Inc.; published by Artists and Writers Protest, Inc. The minimalist composition of blue on white with subtle embossing reminds one of the settlements on the islands in the Aegean Sea--Santorini in particular. This print is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. A very subtle and beautiful work. See the companion piece also for sale on the site.
Adja Yunkers (1900-1983) Yunkers was born in Latvia, Adolf Eduard Vilhelm Junker. His artistic talents were recognized early, but documentation of his formal training is lacking. However, he followed a peripatetic path across the Western world that led him to interact with some of the most notable artists of the early 20th century. These include the Sturmgruppe (Emil Nolde, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Carl Friedrich Schmidt during his time in Germany, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, and Alexander Archipenko from a stay in Russia, and Diego Rivera in Mexico. Despite these diverse influences (or perhaps because of them) Yunkers developed a distinctive abstract style that encompassed a wide range of artistic media including painting, drawing, and murals. He is best known as a printmaker coming to attention with a woodcut series from the 1930s on the Ten Commandments. His reputation as a graphic artist was established by the mid-1930s, but really took off in the post-war period. He moved to the United States in 1947, working and teaching across the country including Barnard College and Cal-Berkeley. He founded the Rio Grande Workshop in Albuquerque and taught there for many years. He came to lithography relatively late in his career, learning the technique in New Mexico at the Tamarind Workshop. This would become his dominant medium for the rest of his career. His work is held in major collections internationally including the Hamburg Kunsthalle, the Rijksmuseum, the Bibliotheque Nationale, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. United States collections include the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, the Guggenheim, and the MoMA.