Artists’ Postcards SERIES I

The initial edition of thirty-nine postcards was the first of its kind to be published in the U.S.A. Distinct from art postcards that are miniature versions of celebrated works, each Artists’ Postcard carries a new picture created especially for it by a living artist.

The artists represented in this first edition, originally published in 1977, includes poets, photographers, architects, and a composer, as well as painters and sculptors.

The original 4 X 6 inch works created for Artists’ Postcards opened in an exhibition at The Drawing Center in New York, City and traveled to museums throughout the United States during 1978 and 1979 in an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

Donald Evans

Apples of Nadorp

Hedda Sterne

Signs

John Ashbery

Heure Exquise

Mary Frank

Cooper Lake, N.Y

Michael Langenstein

Swimmer of Liberty

Robert Motherwell

Gaulois Collage

Robert Wilson

Speech from Letter for Queen Victoria

Russell Drisch

Larry Williams

Some popular desires and or fantasies

“The epoch of the picture postcard is, apparently, upon us. Like some waif suddenly rescued from the obscurity in a 19th century melodrama, the postcard has been elevated to a new status. It has been claimed as heir to the art of the present age. And, so — presto! — we have “Artists’ Postcards,” an exhibition that enlists the talents of such luminaries of the current scene as John Cage and Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner and Donald Barthelme, Saul Steinberg and John Ashbery... a remarkable demonstration of diverse talents working to order on an unusual assignment.”
Hilton Kramer
The New York Times, November 25, 1977

Victoria Barr

Kula Beach, Bali 1977

Andrew P. Macnair

Balloon Frame

Christopher Hewat

From the Melon Collection

Donald Barthelme

Henry James, Chiefs

Donald Windham

Pier. Provincetown, Mass.

Claus Hole

Genue Bos

Postcard, man and woman beetween fyling leafs

Edward Gorey

Gonzalo Fonseca

Urna Parcarum

The success of “Artists’ Postcards” comes from its combination of two apparently contradictory ideas — cheap art and good art—with the intention of making “nice objects” that could circulate to a wide audience….The choice of format was also appropriate since artists have always been fond of postcards for their dry iconic images and pop iconography; and in this show, the postcard form provided plenty of opportunity for visual wit and clever satire.
“Perhaps the most important aspect of Artists' Postcards was the close relationship between image and reproduction… Artists' Postcards made a few essential choices designed to close the gap between original artwork and its reproduction. The images were made exactly the same size as the finished postcard, so there was a one-to-one correspondence between original and duplicate; images were designed specifically to be reproduced, so the intent was present in their conception; and the printing process itself was adjusted to harmonize with the artist’s needs. The experiment used six different printers and many different paper stocks.”
Kay Larson
Associate Editor, ARTnews
Politicks, April 11, 1978

Helen Miranda Wilson

July

Hitch Lyman

The Temple of Zeus, Athens

James S. Rossant

The Brown or Western Gate on the River Brue

James Stevenson

Morning

Janet Stayton

Green Cup - La Vita

Jim Dine

Self Portrait, 1977

Joe Brainard

Yellow Butterfly

John Cage

Forty-five Drawings by Thoreau

Many of the artists have played with the traditional appearance of the postcard: its scenic imagery, its nostalgia, its prurience. For autograph hounds there are cards by Robert Motherwell, Jim Dine, and Joe Brainard. For oddment hounds, there are cards by Edward Gorey and Robert Wilson. For plain old card and/or art buffs, there are manifold delights.
Peter Frank
The Village Voice
January 9, 1978

John Morning

Four by Six, Three by Eight

Lee Krasner

Wildlife in Southwestern Desert

Lenore Tawney

Marilyn Hamann

Maureen McCabe

A Lady of the Night Leading the Bull

Michael Graves

Pre and Post Card

Michael Langenstein

Two in time

Paul Linfante

Ricordi, 1977

Artists’ Postcards is a non-profit making organization set up solely to publish distinguished, limited edition, quality printed works by contemporary artists. As you can imagine, the variety of taste, style and technique is huge and within the set there should be something to please almost everybody. Most of the postcard makers are young artists, but some are well-known in other spheres — people like the writer Tom Wolfe and the cartoonist Ed Koren. All of the postcards have been immensely carefully reproduced with close co-operation between the artists and the printers. They achieve perfectly their aim of bringing small works of art to the man in the street for the price of two tickets to the theatre and of communicating art to us all by the means of the form specially designed to communicate.
Lucia van der Post
The Financial Times, London
April 7, 1979

Richard Benson

The Chateau at Maintenon

Robert M. Kulicke

Still Life, Fruit

Robert Morris

Pentagon

Robert Reid

Figure on the beach #2

Saul Steinberg

East Side Sunset

Series II

Series II consists of fifty works in varied media, produced originally on more than ten different papers, by diverse printing processes. The artists are painters, sculptors, photographers, poets, cartoonists, writers, filmmakers, architects, and a dancer.

Explore Series II

Holiday Cards

Based on the popularity of the Artists’ Postcards Series I and II editions, select artists from the earlier series created special cards for the 1979 holiday season.

Explore Holiday Cards