Cultural identity, political and social issues, portraiture, and landscape, as well as patterning and pure abstraction, are some of the many concerns explored by the artists in this exhibition. Among the fifty-four prints on view are works by John Biggers, Moe Brooker, Joyce de Guatemala, Sam Gilliam, Mei-ling Hom, Ibrahim Miranda, Kenneth Noland, Howardena Pindell, Betye and Alison Saar, Vuyile Voyiya, Kay WalkingStick, and Isaiah Zagar, reflecting the range of Brandywine Workshop participants and underscoring the extent of the workshop's stylistic and conceptual reach. The spectrum of artistic voices and approaches to image-making represented in the exhibition reflects the increasingly pluralistic character of contemporary art.

In 2009, the workshop donated one hundred prints by eighty-nine artists to the Museum in memory of the Museum's late director Anne d'Harnoncourt. Full Spectrum celebrates this generous gift as well as the workshop's accomplishments over its distinguished forty-year history. The workshop's donation is illustrated in its entirety in an accompanying catalogue, which features an essay by Philadelphia native and noted contemporary print scholar Ruth Fine, former Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

View the Gift of Prints from the Brandywine Workshop >>

Since its founding in 1972, the Brandywine Workshop has become an internationally recognized center for printmaking and a vital part of the Philadelphia community. Dedicated to the creation of prints and to broadening their appreciation, the workshop actively engages diverse artists and communities. In addition to working closely with local artists and offering a wide array of educational programs, the workshop has sponsored nearly three hundred residencies for artists from thirty-five states and fifteen foreign countries and has toured exhibitions to over thirty cities in Europe, the Middle and Near East, Africa, and Latin America.

Behind The Scenes

Full Spectrum Artist Bios

Visiting artist residencies are the core of Brandywine workshop’s programming. The residencies provide opportunities for both emerging and established artists to focus on printmaking, removed from other obligations and working in a supportive environment with a master printer for technical guidance. By actively seeking artists from outside as well as within Philadelphia, the workshop broadens the experience of its young interns and apprentices, as well as community audiences who participate in its lectures and educational programs. In its mission to promote printmaking as a fine art, Brandywine often encourages artists who are not printmakers to apply for residencies, inviting them to explore the potential of the medium. The 53 artists in the Full Spectrum exhibition offer a representative sampling of the wide variety of backgrounds and interests of the nearly 300 artists who have made prints at Brandywine.