Kessler: This required a totally different design scenario than previous art stamp issues. For example, in the late ’90s, the USPS did a pane of 20 stamps called Four Centuries of American Art. Most of the artworks were literal and painterly, so you could take a detail from each work, systematize them into squares and have a fabulous sheet. I didn’t feel we could take a detail from this Pollock or that Mitchell, or crop of any of them and have it still be “this artwork.” So we decided to show whole paintings.
Q: Aside from obtaining the rights from multiple estates and institutions, what were other considerations about which artworks to use?
Art historian Jonathan Fineberg, a professor at the University of Illinois, served as the expert making recommendations to us. Fineberg’s extensive knowledge of these artists and their works was key throughout. Here’s one example of needing to balance form and content: Fineberg would have preferred to show one of the huge zip paintings for which Barnett Newman was famous. But it would have been technically risky, pushing the limits of stamp production technology to retain the “zip” at stamp size. Newman’s dramatic sliver of white would have been thinner than a hairline, and with so much colored ink around it, we couldn’t guarantee it would have shown as white, so we ultimately selected Newman’s Achilles.
Q: Did you discuss using paintings that were less diverse in size?
Putting 10 stamps of the same size next to each other wouldn’t show the real range of sizes, shapes and scales, so the sheet wouldn’t have been representative. The artworks are not shown in relative size scale to one another, but do evoke the dramatic scale that is an integral part of Abstract Expressionism. That said, it was rapidly apparent that if I lined up all the tops and let them hang, the sheet itself would not be dynamic.
Q: Did you keep moving the artworks around in relation to each other?
I very much wanted to showcase their diversity. If you think about it, most of these artworks do not hang on a wall in proximity to anything else. I didn’t want to standardize the paintings in any way, and decided not to worry about how much white space was beneath each stamp. To define the edges of the sheet, I considered a single vertical black line along one side. Ultimately, I used the black lines of the Barnett Newman as the edges of the sheet to give a more painterly feel.
Q: Do you wonder what kinds of businesses might use these stamps?
We’ll see! They certainly present an opportunity for any museum that has Abstract Expressionist works — or galleries, art and design schools, bastions of fabulousness all across the country.
Speaking of across the country, Kessler also art directs the Nature of America stamp series — the sheets that look like big landscapes where you “find” the stamps in the scene. In 2009, Kelp Forest debuted underwater at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as reported in Felt & Wire. The 2010 issue, Hawaiian Rain Forest, will be the last in the series. Kessler and artist John Dawson (who has illustrated the entire series and lives in Hawaii) have worked together on the series for 14 years.
Postal insider: If your local post office is already out of the Abstract Expressionist stamps, you can shop on-line or call 1-800-STAMP-24, where operators are ready to help you ’round the clock. The pertinent item number for the sheet of 10 is 465640. Don’t dally.
All stamp designs © 2009 US Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Lovely! Just ordered some for myself.