Exhibition Walk-through: Jacob Samuel on Groove: Artists and Intaglio Prints, 1500 to Now

Master Printer Jacob Samuel leads a walk-through of the exhibition Groove: Artists and Intaglio Prints, 1500 to Now.

Capacity is limited. Visitors will be admitted on a first come, first served basis.

Jacob Samuel printed etchings for 48 years. In 1980 he worked at Gemini, working with artists Richard Serra, Michael Heizer, Ellsworth Kelly and Ron Davis.In 1981 Sam Francis hired him to be his etching printer at the Litho Shop, his print studio. He produced 120 color aquatint editions for Francis ranging in sizes up to 3’ x 5’ and 35 colors. Samuel also collaborated with Richard Long, Joe Goode and Ed Ruscha on limited edition artist books for LapisPress. In 1988, Samuel established his own imprint, Edition Jacob Samuel (EJS). He went on to print and publish a total of 70 projects by 65 artists over 28 years concentrating on single plate monochromatic small format works printed in series. Artists include include Marina Abramovic, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Dan Graham, Jannis Kounellis, Mona Hatoum, Rebecca Horn, Guillermo Kuitca, Josiah McElheny, Barry McGee, Meredith Monk, Wangechi Mutu, Gabriel Orozco, Guiseppe Penone, Walid Raad, Ed Ruscha, Tom Sachs, Robert Therrien, Gert & Uwe Tobias, Jonas Wood, Christopher Wool and Andrea Zittel.

In 2010 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hammer Museum jointly acquired an archive of over 800 prints culminating in an exhibition of more than 500 prints at the Hammer Museum. In 2012, works from Edition Jacob Samuel were included in Print Out at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2013, a complete series by Jonathan Lasker David Musgrave and the Tobias twins were included in 500 Years of Etchings since Durer’s Melancholia at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, acquired the complete publications from Edition Jacob Samuel. EJS ceased its publishing program after the MoMA acquisition. Jacob Samuel founded Green Dolphin Street, a new imprint, in 2016 publishing ten etchings by Christopher Wool. The exhibition New Ground: Jacob Samuel and Contemporary Etching opened at MoMA in October 2023 and is on until the end of March 2024. A publication was published in conjunction with the exhibition.