A Meticulous Serenity

Artist, scholar, writer, and educator, Clinton Adams (1918-2002) was recognized as one of the most important influences on the development of fine-art printmaking in America. He was one of the founders of the renowned Tamarind Institute, instrumental in reviving the art of lithography. Adams was also a prolific printmaker himself. His work was characterized by a mix of traditional representation and modernist abstraction, rendered, as the title of this catalogue suggests, with his incomparably meticulous serenity.

Adams had more than thirty solo exhibitions, and his works are in the collections of major museums all over the country. This catalogue raisonne accounts for all of his work and traces the varieties of techniques and collaborations that make lithography a particularly complex medium to keep track of. It also includes numerous comments from the artist about the genesis of the work, the technical challenges he and his printers faced, and his own assessments of quality and significance. A lively biographical essay recalls Adams's extra-artistic skills as well, reminding us that he was a great administrator and teacher, and a formidable poker player.