A catalogue was created for an exhibition showcasing Claire Van Vliet’s black and white landscape prints at Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston (January 15th – March 19th, 1999); North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks (April – May 1999); and Art Galleries, University of Maine, Machias (September – October 1999). There were 200 copies of the book made, each with an original print on the cover. There are 77 stunning black and white prints of landscapes, full of meticulous details are within the book. Her inspiration came from the Vermont landscape when she travelled on the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship Award in 1989. The copy in Special Collections is signed by Van Viet’s herself and has an invitation to a lecture by Ruth E. Fine on Van Vliet’s Landscape prints, along with a gallery announcement of the exhibition held at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
Claire Van Vliet was born in Ottawa, Ontario and has multiple titles, such as fine artist, illustrator, and typographer. In 1955, she founded Janus Press located in Newark, Vermont where she’s created books, pamphlets, and broadsides. She received her BA from San Diego State University in 1952 and her MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1954. She is known for creating pieces in watercolor, drawing, etching, lithography, woodcuts, and paperwork. She has been an artist in residence and lectured in a multitude of countries, for example, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand.
If you’d like to see In Black and White: Landscape Prints by Clair Van Vliet (NE539 V38 A4 1999 Art) by Genetta McLean you can always visit us in Special Collections, located on the 5th floor of McFarlin Library, Monday through Friday, 8:00 am until 4:30 pm. If you’re a fan of artists books or want to learn more about them, our current exhibition, Artist’s Books: Challenging Norms & Forms showcases 24 unique artist’s books from our collection. The show runs until the end of March.