September 15, 2020 by Leslie Jones, Curator, Prints and Drawings at LACMA

Cirrus Editions celebrates its 50th anniversary this year! Founded by Jean Milant in 1970, Cirrus has been a stalwart presence in the Los Angeles print world, making a name for itself through its commitment to local artists and its embrace of unconventional printmaking techniques. Ed Ruscha was among the first artists invited to Cirrus and immediately offered up an unusual challenge: a two-color screenprint made with Pepto Bismol and caviar (in lieu of conventional inks). The result was Pepto-Caviar Hollywood, now an icon in the annals of experimental printmaking (and artmaking for that matter). In 1977–78 Joe Goode made lithographs at Cirrus that he subsequently slashed with a razorblade and, a few years later, produced his "Gunshot Series" of two-side lithographs punctured and tattered with shot. Jill Giegerich printed on rubberized cork, William T. Wiley on leather hide, and Greg Card on plexiglass. More recently, Cirrus published a print by legendary feminist and peformance artist Barbara T. Smith who improvised with her hands and face over the scanner bed in the process of capturing the final image.

The Oregon philanthropist Jordan D. Schnitzer has acquired a significant archive of prints and other works on paper by the artist Judy Chicago with the goal of highlighting her six-decade feminist career through exhibitions and museum loans.

The purchase by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, encompassing over 300 limited-edition prints, preparatory drawings and sketches and copper plates, is entering a collection already known for championing women artists and artists of colour including Kara Walker, Lorna Simpson, Alison Saar and Hung Liu, according to Tonya Turner Carroll, the Santa Fe dealer and art advisor who brokered the acquisition. No price was disclosed.