The Wichita Art Museum Celebrates Printmaking from the Lawrence Lithography Workshop

Written by Hayden Arnolfini Thursday, 29 December 2011 23:18

Wichita, Kansas.- The Wichita Art Museum is proud to present "The Lawrence Lithography Workshop: Suites and Portfolios" on view at the museum through February 12th 2012. For more than 30 years artists have come to work at The Lawrence Lithography Workshop with master printer Mike Sims. This exhibition features more than 70 prints including noted local artists such as Peregrine Honig and Roger Shimomura, along with William T. Wiley of California and the late Luis Jimenez of New Mexico. "Suites and Portfolios" is a collaboration between the Belger Arts Center, TLLW, and the Wichita Art Museum. Stephen Gleissner, Chief Curator of Wichita Art Museum, curated many of the works for the exhibition, which will be supplemented with some artwork from the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation collection. A catalog is being produced by the Wichita Art Museum with support from the Belger Cartage Service, Inc.

The Lawrence Lithography Workshop began in the basement of 7 East 7th Street in downtown Lawrence in 1979. For the first several months Sims lived in the workshop, eventually moving his living quarters to a loft space on the second floor of the same building. Since those early days, TLLW has worked with more than 130 different artists, producing thousands of prints. Most of the output has been prints generated from Bavarian limestone or metal plates, but some woodcut prints have also been produced in the shop. Sims says he has stayed away from reproductions and only works on projects where “the artist has his or her hand directly involved in the print.” Sims says lithography is one of the more “recent” types of printmaking, having been developed in the late 18th century in Europe. The term lithography came from the Greek words for “stone writing.” Artists in Suites and Portfolios include Nick Bubash, Edward Henderson, Peregrine Honig, Tom Huck, Gesine Janzen, Luis Jimenez, Jamie Jones, Roger Shimomura, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Theodore Waddell, William T. Wiley, and others. (Complete checklist is not final at time of this release).


The Wichita Art Museum was established in 1915, when Louise Murdock’s Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her husband. The trust would purchase of art for the City of Wichita by “American painters, potters, sculptors, and textile weavers.” The collection includes works by Mary Cassatt, Arthur G. Dove, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyshoi, John Marin, Paul Meltsner, Horace Pippin, Maurice Prendergast, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Charles Sheeler. The Museum's lobby features a ceiling and chandelier made by Dale Chihuly. The museum opened opened in 1935 with art borrowed from other museums. The first work in the Murdock Collection was purchased in 1939. Mrs. Murdock’s friend, Elizabeth Stubblefield Navas, selected and purchased works of American art for the Murdock Collection till 1962. The building was enlarged with a new lobby and two new wings in 1963. In 1964 a foundation was established for the purpose of raising funds for new acquisitions. In the 1970's the city built a new and larger climate controlled facility. In 2003 the museum finished another expansion project giving the building 115,000 total square feet. Visit the museum's website at ... http://wichitaartmuseum.org

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