Ad Formam / Ars Cognoscitur (To form known in the art) by Art Hazelwood

Ad Formam / Ars Cognoscitur (To form known in the art) by Art Hazelwood

Ad Formam / Ars Cognoscitur (To form known in the art)

Art Hazelwood

Title

Ad Formam / Ars Cognoscitur (To form known in the art)

 
Artist

Art Hazelwood

  1961 - PRESENT (biography)
Year
2004  
Technique
etching 
Image Size
5 3/4 x 7 3/8" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right in margin 
Edition Size
2 of 20  
Annotations
pencil dated and editioned 
Reference
 
Paper
antique-white wove 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
23244 
Price
SOLD
Description

California printmaker and social commentator Art Hazelwood did this etching in 2004 based on observations he made at the San Francisco Fine Print Fair in Fort Mason.

Four print dealers stand around an urn that is filled with sheets of paper, presumably prints. As they examine them the sheets fly off into the sky. At the base of the urn are some rollers from a printing press and the banner "Ad Formam Ars Cognoscitur" which roughly translates to "To Form the Known in the Art", perhaps a double entendre, (the artist's name is Art).

The four dealers depicted are, from the left: Carol Goodfriend of C & J Goodfriend Drawings and Prints, poised, elegant with coat and scarf; the late Lee Stone of M. Lee Stone Fine Prints with his signature turtleneck sweater; the late Paul McCarron of Paul McCarron Fine Prints and Drawings, magnifier in hand; and myself, Daniel Lienau of the Annex Galleries, hand in suit pocket and eyebrows flaring.

I have always ascribed my own meaning to the work, that dealers rescue prints from all centuries, pieces of paper with ink impressed onto them. The dealers then research them and ascribe a monetary "value" to them, based on their importance, rarity, condition, sales of other impressions, and other factors that can be applied to a given work (subject, provenance, etc). The more information the dealer provides the more comfortable a collector is with purchasing the print. Upon purchase, the work moves on into a collection or someone's wall, a gift or a donation. The dealer having helped "form the known in the art". That may not be what Art meant, but it is the way I prefer to view it.