The Font

 

Karl Kasten

  1916 - 2010 (biography)

1955  

mixed technique color intaglio 

9 7/8 x 11 15/16" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

5 of 25  

pencil titled, dated, and editioned 

illustrated in "California Society of Printmakers - One Hundred Years 1913-2013," page 10. 

ivory laid "Ingres" 

published 

artist 

MASC180 

$1,500.00 

A cocophany of shape, texture, and color is displayed on the sheet like a stained glass window in Karl Kasten's "The Font". The reverberations of Abstract Expressionism had made their mark in the San Francisco Bay Area in the previous decade when Kasten was a teacher at the California School of Fine arts (CSFA; now the San Francisco Art Institute). By the mid 1950s, he had established himself as a leading practitioner and teacher of printmaking, as well as a vocal proponent of the exciting new genre.

In 1950 Kasten took a position at San Francisco State University, where he developed its printmaking program, and then joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, on the reccommendation of artist and friend Worth Ryder. This print exemplifies the post-war era and the intent of many artists to find new paths of expression. Kasten deftly utilizes the entire surface of the plate to coax forth textures, broken by deeply gouged, fractal linework.