Impressions of an Era: Prints from the Denison Museum CollectioN

This selection of prints, created between 1970 and 1990 by nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists, reflects two transformative decades in contemporary printmaking. Drawn from a larger selection of works transferred to the Dennos Museum Center from the Denison Museum in Granville, Ohio, these prints highlight the range and experimentation that defined late twentieth-century printmaking.

Artists such as Dee Shapiro and Barbara Kohl-Spiro explored abstraction, pattern, and perception with quilt-like imagery and rhythmic color, while KUDO Muramasa brought a more atmospheric and expressive perspective to their work. In Take the A Train to Harlem, James Rizzi infused the print medium with playful urban energy and a distinctly pop sensibility. Together, the artists in this collection pushed the limits of process and color, transforming printmaking into a medium of bold innovation and accessibility, and capturing a moment when contemporary art was expanding beyond the studio and gallery walls—reaching new audiences and reshaping the language of visual communications.

Image (detail): James Rizzi, Take the A Train to Harlem. 1989, Lithograph. From the Collection of the Dennos Museum Center.