Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Extent:
2 Sound recordings (open reel, 1/4 inch)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Documentary films
Interviews
Place:
Washington (D.C.)
United States
Date:
1983
Scope and Contents:
Interview with Lou Stovall for documentary in which Stovall demonstrates and speaks about his silk screen printing process and use of color in detail. During the interview, Stovall discusses his ability and passion for drawing, hiding the human figure in landscape compositions, working with stencils and proofing strips, details of the reductive printing process, integration of color in his work, silk screen printing as a technical medium, art intelligence, aesthetics in his work and other artists, where he gets his inspiration, and Sam Gilliam's work and abstract art.
Interview for short documentary titled Lou Stovall. Audio only. Part of Through Their Eyes: The Art of Lou and Di Stovall Audiovisual Records. AV003305: audio skips and minimal distortions. Dated 19830627.
Biographical / Historical:
Lou Stovall Interview - Silk Screen Process is related to an exhibition featuring the works of Washington, D.C. artists, Lou and Di Stovall, organized by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and held there from September 18, 1983 - March 4, 1984. The exhibition, Through Their Eyes: The Art of Lou and Di Stovall, showcased 84 works - silkscreen prints, drawings, and arcylic paintings - illustrating the artists' progression form posterists to master printmaker and miniaturist, respectively. The art was complemented by audiovisual presentations on the technique of silkscreen printing and a biographical essay on the artists.;Lou Stovall was born Luther McKinley Stovall in Athens, Georgia in 1937. When Stovall was four years old, his family moved north to Springfield, Massachusetts to find work. At age of fifteen, he was an apprentice to Al LaPierre in his silkscreen sign shop at the Growers Outlet Super Market. In 1956, Stovall received a grant and scholarship to attend Rhode Island School of Design. After the first semester, his father became ill so Stovall returned home to support his family for about five or six years. When he returned to school, Stovall attended Howard University, where he received a B.F.A. in 1965. James Lesesne Wells introduced to Stovall to silkscreen as a fine art rather than a commercial medium. Stovall also learned about collaboration in printmaking (artist and printer combining ideas and skills to create a work of art) from Wells. In 1968, Stovall received a grant to buy printmaking equipment. However, he made most of the tools and tables himself creating a full scale printmaking, wood making, and metal workshop in Washington, D.C. Under his direction, Workshop Inc. has grown from a small but active studio primarily concerned with community posters into a professional printmaking outfit. Stovall creates his own original silkscreen prints and is the printmaker of choice for other master artists including Elizabeth Catlett, David C. Driskell, and Sam Gilliam. For each work of art, he finds new and unique ways to replicate as closely as possible a painting supplied by the artist. He has the ability to make the medium do just about anything he and the artist(s) want it to do. Stovall's innovative techniques and distinctive style is credited by artists and critics with helping to transform the concept of silkscreen printmaking from a commercial craft to a true art form. In 1971, Stovall married Di Bagley, a painter who specializes in acrylic on paper and incorporates miniature images into many of her works.
Local Numbers:
ACMA AV003305-2
ACMA AV003281
General:
Title transcribed from physical asset.
Series Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
