This is a demonstration of the ISM WPA image gallery
Uptown
Leonard Pytlak (1910 - 1998)
lithograph on paper, 1935
13 x 9 3/4 inches
Leonard Pytlak worked for the New York City WPA graphics program from 1934 to 1941. He studied art at the Art Students League and at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art. He was a founding member of the National Serigraphic Society. His work has been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and others.
An artist creates a color lithograph by drawing on a stone or metal plate with a greasy pen or pencil. The plate is chemically fixed to take the inks. In a color lithograph such as this one, a separate plate is inked for each color in the specified areas and printed. The paper runs through the press as many times as there are colors in the design. It is a complicated process and printers helped many of the program's artists produce their prints.
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
photograph by Gary Andrashko
ISM Accession #: 1943.16/909.76
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