Rebecca Capua, Associate Paper Conservator at the Sherman Fairchild Center for Works of Art on Paper, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been awarded the 2018 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize. Now in its fourth year, this award is given by the Association of Print Scholars (APS) to an article published by an early-career scholar that features compelling and innovative research on prints or printmaking. Capua’s article, “Japonisme and Japanese Works on Paper: Cross-cultural and hybrid materials” was published in Adapt and Evolve: East Asian Materials and Techniques in Western Conservation, the proceedings from the International Conference of the Icon Book & Paper Group, held in London from April 8-10, 2015. A link to the article can be found here.
Honorable Mentions have been awarded to Paris Amanda Spies-Gans, Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, for her article, “A Princely Education through Print: Stefano della Bella’s 1644 Jeux de Cartes Etched for Louis XIV” in the Getty Research Journal, no. 9 (2017), and to Sileas Wood, Assistant Curator, Parliamentary Collection, Palace of Westminster, for her article, “Moving Pictures: Nineteenth-Century British Mechanical Prints,” published in Print Quarterly, 34, no. 2 (June 2017).
Capua’s article re-evaluates the movement of “Japonisme” by considering how the perception of Japanese woodblock prints in the West was mediated through their dissemination as commercialized copies, facsimiles, and emulations using Western printmaking techniques, leading to a selective valuation of certain aspects of Japanese technique and materials.
The three members of the jury praised Capua’s article for situating “the topic in a broad art historical context” and revealing the “complex ways artistic ideas moved between cultures.” As they noted, “Capua’s article is a very valuable contribution to the scholarship on Japonisme; the article is clear, well-written, succinct, and illuminates new research. It is as fascinating as it is useful.” They believe the article will interest a broad audience of curators, conservators, collectors, and scholars by providing “much-needed clarity in the confusing realm of ‘Japan’ papers.”
APS would like to thank this year’s jurors for their diligence and generosity in reading this year’s submissions: Margaret Holben Ellis, Chair of the Conservation Center, New York University, Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation; Andrew Raftery, Professor of Printmaking, Rhode Island School of Design; and Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Portland Museum of Art.
The Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, which carries a $2,000 prize, is generously sponsored by Susan Schulman and Carolyn Bullard, both private print dealers. Following the mission of APS, articles can feature aspects of printmaking across any geographic region and all chronological periods. APS is currently accepting submissions for the 2019 prize up to the deadline of January 31, 2019. Please visit the APS website for more details about submitting an article for consideration: https://printscholars.org/awards/
APS is a nonprofit members’ group for enthusiasts of printmaking that brings together the diverse community of curators, collectors, academics, graduate students, artists, conservators, critics, independent scholars, and art dealers. APS’s goals are to encourage innovative and interdisciplinary study of printmaking and to facilitate dialogue among its members. Over 400 people from all over the world have become members since APS launched in 2014.
Please contact Angela Campbell, APS Grants Coordinator, at angela@printscholars.org with any questions regarding this announcement.