In the 1980s, when I was collecting stamps, it always bugged me that the French could continue to produce amazingly beautiful stamps, a few every year, that showed treasures of French art. They were engraved, the colors were both rich and subtle, and having a page of them was like a poor person's art collection.
Why oh why couldn't the USPS do that? Oh sure you'd get the Cassat or Rockwell now and then, but the production values weren't very good and they never seemed to occupy the space of the stamp as well as the French ones.
Well, I haven' seen them yet except in a magazine and online, but I can't wait to buy a few sheets of these latest stamps. They are for the current first class postage, 44 cents, and the list is interesting:
- The Golden Wall (1961) — Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
- Romanesque Façade (1949) — Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
- Orange and Yellow (1956) — Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
- The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb (1944) — Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)
- 1948–C (1948) — Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
- Asheville (1948) — Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
- Achilles (1952) — Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
- Convergence (1952) — Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
- Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 (1953–1954) — Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
- La Grande Vallée 0 (1983) — Joan Mitchell (1925–1992)
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2 comments:
This is so neat. I always love when “high” art is reproduced at a level where so many people will see it. Granted, the size of a stamp is tiny compared to the originals, but perhaps it will peak the interest of someone who would otherwise never look at a painting by Rothko or Motherwell. Not only that, art aficionados will be giddy to send a letter the good old fashioned way in style. The internet is such great place to explore new art topics and artists .
This is great! Thanks for writing about it.
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