Printmaker/book artist Michael Kuch to lecture Sept. 23

Printmaker/book artist Michael Kuch, known for imaginative works created in a wide variety of media, will discuss "The Annotated Image," this year's Fox-Adler Lecture at Skidmore College, on Thursday, Sept. 23. 

Free and open to the public, the illustrated talk will begin at 5:15 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. A reception will follow in Schick Art Gallery.

Two exhibitions on campus have been developed in connection with the lecture. In Skidmore'sSchick Art Gallery through Sunday, Sept. 26, there is an exhibition featuring works by Kuch.   A smaller exhibition in Scribner Library showcases some of the limited-edition books by Kuch housed in the library's Special Collections. Professor of English Catherine J. Golden and Wendy Anthony, curator of special collections, mounted the book exhibition. Golden coordinates the Fox-Adler lecture, which is now in its 22nd year.

According to Golden, "Kuch pushes the realm of the possible and, in doing so, creates artists' books that give us great insight into timely world issues.   Joining reality and fantasy, Kuch- a protege of pioneering book artist Leonard Baskin- merges human figures with natural forms.   Characters from mythology and the Bible comment on our times."

Kuch matches his prolific generation of iconography with facility in diverse media, which the Schick Art Gallery exhibition clearly demonstrates. Anchored in solid pen and ink draftsmanship, Kuch is at ease working in ink wash, watercolor, oils, pastels, etching, lithography, and bronze sculpture. In these multiple media, Kuch explores his ideas, creating woodcuts and etchings that are incorporated into his limited-edition books. One can see an interpretation of a single image in varied techniques. Ink wash adds mystery to his meticulous line; ink mixed with watercolor articulates outlines and solidifies space. Knowledge of watercolor's transparencies helps him create layered, gem-like oils. Kuch's first bronze sculpture, Pregnant Man, even plays literally with the creative physicality of the medium. 

Kuch was born in 1965 and grew up in northern Vermont. He began drawing in pen and ink at the age of 11 and the following year had a one-person show at a local museum. He remained self-taught until he came under the wing of Leonard Baskin at Hampshire College. Under Baskin's critical eye, Kuch studied life drawing in the classical tradition. As a student, he was particularly struck by the print work of Odilon Redon, Francisco Goya, and Giambattista Tiepolo. For many years after receiving his B.A., Kuch continued to work closely with Baskin, printing etchings in color for Baskin's Gehenna Press.

In 1994 Kuch started his own Double Elephant Press with the publication of a book of frog etchings titled A Plague on Your House. A recent book project, Apocalypse Clocks, was a millennial retrospective of the end of time. A collaboration with former Poet Laureate Anthony Hecht, Seance for a Minyan, resurrected original testament figures to let them speak to modern times. Kuch's poetry has been published in The Nation. In 2000, Kuch produced the book Falling to Earth in reaction to the events of Sept. 11. He currently divides his time between his apartment near Ground Zero in Manhattan and his studio in Hadley, Massachusetts.

The Schick Art Gallery is also featuring works relating to Kuch's recent book projects A Sphinx's Field Guide to Questionable Answers and Common Monsters as well as Waterlines, published this past year (and also on display in the Scribner Library exhibition). The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekends.   Admission is free.

Skidmore's Fox-Adler Lecture Series is named in honor of Norman M. Fox and the late Hannah Moriarta Adler, connoisseurs and collectors of rare books.  In 1967, Adler loaned her extensive collection of 19th-century books to Skidmore.  After her death in 1989, Fox and his family took charge of her collection and initiated a yearly Adler Lecture as a way to discuss the importance of literature and art in the 19th century. In 2001, the event was renamed the Fox-Adler lecture, and in 2005, the Fox family gave the collection to Skidmore's Scribner Library.