Harry Shokler: Selected Prints and Process

The Art Academy of Cincinnati is pleased to present Harry Shokler: Selected Prints and Process, an exhibition featuring works by artist, printmaking pioneer, and AAC alum Harry Shokler.

About the Artist: Born and raised in Cincinnati, Harry Shokler (1896—1978) graduated from Woodward High School in 1914, and then enrolled at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He later also continued his studies in New York and Philadelphia. Early in his career, his artworks were included in numerous exhibitions in New York, Provincetown, Cincinnati, Paris, Baltimore, and elsewhere. He eventually settled in Vermont.

Although primarily a painter, Shokler worked in other media, and turned to printmaking after working in the WPA’s “Silk Screen Unit” in the late 1930s—a time when American artists were just beginning to discover and develop the process of screen printing. This experience led him to teach screen printing in New York, and to publish Artists Manual for Silk Screen Print Making (1946), a book which became the definitive guide to the process, and helped cement his status as an important and influential figure in the development of the medium.

Shokler’s prints and other artworks can be found in private and public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Cincinnati Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and many more.

About the Exhibition: Harry Shokler: Selected Prints and Process highlights a selection of the artist’s screen print work, presented alongside historical information, source paintings, and process proofs. The exhibition offers a glimpse into Shokler’s world and the history of printmaking, and a celebratory homecoming for an innovator who began his artistic journey at AAC 110 years ago. We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the artist’s nieces Carol Bluestein and Phyllis Herzig and their extended families; their donation of artwork to AAC makes this and other exhibitions possible.