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Joseph Zirker

Joe Zirker said of his experimental printmaking technique: "...when acrylics are painted on certain slick, non-absorbent surfaces, they may easily be peeled off by hand, retaining the integrity of the paint film. What was not known (or not tried) was the potential for incorporating image-making in the use of acrylics this way. Futher, aside from the advantage of making monotypes, monoprints, editionable intaglio prints, collages and 3-dimensional prints without the use of presses, this method allows for the inclusion of many other media. Because of their bonding qualities, acrylic pigments and gels allow for the casting of imagery rendered with almost all other media including watercolors, inks, pastels, charcoal, graphite -- the list goes on."

(Joseph Zirker, Translucent Transformations: Joseph Zirker, Santa Clara: de Saisset Museum, 2004. Print.)

Joseph Zirker was born Irving Joseph to Clarence Harold and Lillian Rappaport Zirker in Los Angeles, California on 13 August 1924. He studied at the University of California at Los Angeles for the academic years 1943-1944 and 1946-1947, and continued his studies receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Denver in 1949 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California in 1951.

Zirker taught at the University of Southern California, the Hollywood Art Center in Los Angeles, the Chouinard Art Center, and the Los Angeles County Art Institute (formerly known as Otis Art Institute) before moving to Northern California and settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1966, Zirker joined the faculty of San Jose City College and retired in 1984. He also taught a few summer sessions at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon and several summer quarters at Stanford University.

Elected an Associate Member of The National Academy of Design in 1992, Zirker was elevated to full Academician in 1994. Since 1968, his work has been included in numerous solo exhibitions and over the years his work was paired in two-person exhibitions with Misch Kohn, Michael Mazur, William Weege, Bob Nugent, Helen Frederick, and John Anderson. An innovator, Zirker developed the acrylic paint monotype and filed for patents on his processes in 2001.