Michael Woolworth (born in 1960) is a master printer of American origin, living and working in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He makes original editions with

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

ists. His

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

specializes exclusively in printing techniques on hand presses: stone

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

and multiples.

Biography

Michael Woolworth moved to Paris from the United States in 1979 and began working with Franck Bordas (grandson of the French master printer and lithographer Fernand Mourlot), who had just established his own lithography studio. He worked there for six years, working with artists as Gilles Aillaud, Jorge Camacho, Henri Cueco,

Erró Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements.

, Daniel Pommereulle, Jean Messagier, Hervé Di Rosa, François Boisrond,

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), usually known simply as Matta, also as Sebastián Matta or Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known Painting, painters and a seminal figure in 20th ...

and

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" a ...

. He opened his own Parisian atelier in 1985 with a project with the Surrealist Matta, bringing together 90 scenes inspired by Cervantes’

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

. He then undertook collaborations with Daniel Pommereulle and Jorge Camacho, and with several others, in particular the Spaniard José Maria Sicilia, with whom he began a long collaboration of more than 200 editions, among them, in 2004, a “rug” in lithography on 84 pieces of plaster measuring 3 m x 9 m, for an exhibition of contemporary art at the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. Since 2003, he has produced a large number of works with the American artist

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American artist. Dine's work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, letterpress, and linocuts), sculpture, and photography. Educ ...

, including more than one hundred prints, many in large format, as well as two lithography books on

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a poor man named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

. In 2011, Michael Woolworth was awarded the

Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant co ...

and was also given the title by the French state of 'Maître d'Art'.

Artists

Some of the artists who have worked with him are: *

Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French and American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') t ...

* Rémi Blanchard * Stéphane Bordarier * José Manuel Broto * Jorge Camacho *

Miguel Ángel Campano Miguel Ángel Campano Mendaza (February 11, 1948 – August 5, 2018) was a Spanish painter who was critically acclaimed as part of the "generation of the renewal of Spanish painting", receiving, among other prizes, the National Award for Plastic A ...

* Vincent Corpet * Gunter Damisch * Marc Desgrandchamps *

* Brecht Evens * Günther Forg * Richard Gorman * Marie-Ange Guilleminot * Yuri Kuper * Bertrand Lavier * Frédérique Loutz * Frédérique Lucien * Pierre Mabille *

William MacKendree William MacKendree is an American artist. He was born in Augusta, Georgia in 1948. He studied Philosophy and Visual Arts at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Following the completion of his university degrees, he left the U.S. to live and wo ...

* Matta * Jean-François Maurige *

Jean-Michel Othoniel Jean-Michel Othoniel (born 27 January 1964) is a French contemporary artist. He has worked in a variety of artistic media, including film, installation, photography and sculpture. In 2000 he designed a new entrance for the Palais Royal–Mus ...

* A.R. Penck * Stéphane Pencréac'h *

Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa i Suñé (; born 23 August 1955) is a Spanish people, Catalan visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver. He has also created opera sets, video projections and acoustic installations. Biography Plensa was born in Barcelona, Ca ...

* Jean-Pierre Pincemin *

Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 30 June 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving fro ...

* José Maria Sicilia * Peter Soriano * Djamel Tatah * Barthélemy Toguo * Claude Yvel * Otto Zitko

Collections

His publications have been acquired in many public and private collections, including:

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Fonds National d’art contemporain The Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC; National Foundation for Contemporary Art) is a public collection of contemporary art in France. It does not hold exhibitions but acquires and stores works of art that it loans to Museum, museums, cultura ...

Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

Brooklyn Museum, New York
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
National Museum of Canberra, Australia
University of Leipzig Library

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

Le Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium
Kyoto Art Museum, Japan

Exhibitions

Michael Woolworth organizes and participates in events and exhibitions in his atelier, located just off the

Place de la Bastille The Place de la Bastille () is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison once stood, until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of ...

, as well as in galleries, museums, libraries and art fairs. Selected recent exhibitions: 2011
Musee d'Art Moderrne de la Ville de Paris, Marc Desgrandchamps.

Château de Chambord The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with ...

, Djamel Tatah.
Atelier Michael Woolworth, ‘ANDERS’, project with Frédérique Loutz, inspired by the fairy-tales by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

, with poems by Ernesto Castillo. 2010
Jim Dine exhibition at the Atelier Woolworth : book launching of Donkey in the Sea Before Us, published by the atelier with lithographs and original poems by Dine. 2009
Museum of Modern Art, Boras, Sweden, exhibition on ‘Jim Dine’s Pinocchio’.
‘La Force de l'Art 02’, Paris. Large installation by Frédérique Loutz at the Grand Palais, with the “Fèdre” project and a wallpaper produced by the atelier. 2008
‘5 / 5: Loud and Clear’, Librairie Saint-Hubert, Brussels - Vincent Corpet, Marc Desgrandchamps, Frédérique Loutz, Stéphane Pencréac’h, Djamel Tatah
Lithography by A.R. Penck created for the Musée d’art moderne de la ville, Paris. 2007
Vitrine by Djamel Tatah, Centre Georges Pompidou, in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Airs de Paris’.
‘L’Odyssée de Jim Dine’, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France. 2006
‘Jim Dine’s Pinocchio’, New York Public Library.
‘Peinture et poésie : le dialogue par le livre’,

, with the artist’s book Impromptu by José Maria Sicilia, with poems by Jacques Dupin. 2005
‘Jim Dine. Plants and Tools’, Alan Cristea Gallery, London. 2004
‘Jim Dine’s Garden’, Pace Prints, New York.
Musée du Louvre, Paris. ‘Contrepoint’, installation by José Maria Sicilia.

References

* "L'Odysee" de Jim Dine, 2007 * "Thinking Print", MoMa, 1996 * "Print It, Damn It ! Atelier Michael Woolworth", 2005, Musee de Goya, Fuendetodos * http://www.michaelwoolworth.com * http://www.williammackendree.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolworth, Michael American artists 1960 births Living people