'Bill Nimkin: 25 Years of Printmaking' Opens Today at Manhattan Graphics Center

"Bill Nimkin was a member of Manhattan Graphics Center for 25 years. He started printmaking at Pratt Graphics in Manhattan in the late 1970's where he met David Finkbeiner, Vijay Kumar and many of the current and original key members of Manhattan Graphics Center. He attended summer printmaking workshops in Valdottavo, Italy and worked there with Luis Camnitzer and David Finkbeiner.

Throughout his career as a printmaking enthusiast, he was very experimental in his approach. Bill worked primarily in intaglio processes and also incorporated relief printmaking, Xerox transfers and papermaking to augment his artistic expression. For over 20 years he was a member of Vijay Kumar's Wednesday afternoon intaglio class where he employed and mastered many different approaches to the etching process.

In going through his huge inventory of prints we found recurring themes; birds, architecture, flowers, landscapes, travel related imagery and abstract compositions. These were the outgrowth of his many interests and he realized these images by playing with a wide range or resists including, soft and hard ground, toner, white ground, line etching, Chine colle, "bubble etching", scraped aquatints, dry point, transfer prints, viscosity printing, relief printing and collage techniques. He very often used the paper he made at Dieu Donne for printing and Chine colle.

As one looks at the selected works in this show it is apparent that much of it is not signed, numbered, dated or titled. Bill mostly labeled his prints as AP and rarely made a numbered edition. What is so striking in this small sampling is the wide range of imagery and techniques employed to make such a delightful and artistic body of work.

Bill Nimkin was a kind of "elder statesman" of our printmaking group. He shared his delight of all things cosmopolitan while working on his many projects, discussing the latest plays, movies, art shows and restaurants. We mulled over politics and the "Op Ed" page of the New York Times. He offered good advice on family matters and always put everything in a sane perspective. Once a year, a group of us got together for lunch before class and Bill always picked up the tab. The most memorable of these was the last lunch in November of 2011. He invited us to the Harvard club for an excellent meal and insisted on Hasty Pudding for dessert for everyone! After lunch he came to see our new shop on West 40th Street. When MGC moved there, Bill said he had moved 3 times with the print shop and didn't want to move again.

Well Bill, you're back! We love you and miss you very much. Having your prints hanging here fills the shop with your wonderful presence." - Beth Ganz September 2013