The Couple

Jacques Lipchitz

Tatyana and Maurice Grosman, emigrees from Europe in the early 1940s opened a small studio on 8th Street in New York where Maurice learned silkscreen printing (also called serigraphy or screen-print). By late 1955 the couple convinced artist friends to submit original works they could reproduce in serigraphy in limited editions, the idea being to sell them reasonably to museum stores and young collectors. In 1956 Tatyana named their new enterprise "Limited Art Editions," soon changing it to "Universal Limited Art Editions." Maurice did the printing, using only the finest materials, and Tatyana showed portfolios to clients.

Shortly thereafter, in 1957, the Grosmans bought 2 litho stones and a $15.00 press, learned how to print lithographs, and began to work with artists directly on the stones. The rest is modern printmaking history.

The Grosmans had stayed with Jaques Lipchitz when they arrived in New York in the early 1940s and they became fast friends. Lipchitz did the painting for "Couple" specifically to have it printed as a screen-print by Maurice. Done in 1957 in an edition of 98 it is one of the last prints of this type they published, moving into lithography later that year.

This impression is screen-signed by Lipchitz, who had worked at the experimental Atelier 17 in New York with Stanley William Hayter and had a working knowledge of printmaking techniques. While he had not spent much time in printmaking, he believed that an artist's expertise grew by working with unfamiliar media. The edition was set at 98 and printed by Maurice Grosman with the artist's approval on a sheet of heavy white wove 'A Millbourn' rag paper. It is stamped with the ULAE blind-stamp, one of the earliest example of the use of this logo. It appears to be Lipchitz's only screen-print, all his other graphic work was intaglio or lithographic. ULAE did not have an impression to illustrate in the Sparks catalog raisonné, though it is illustrated on their website.