Oral History

In my research about American printmaking during the 60s and 70s, there is one anecdote that is repeated many many times. It is the story of Robert Rauschenberg's famous lithograph "Accident" (1963) printed by Bob Blackburn at U.L.A.E. The literature says that in the middle of printing, the stone broke. Rauschenberg turned to Blackburn and said something to the effect of, "I like the effect of this broken stone, let's keep printing and see what happens." This event has been hailed by many scholars to show the experimental nature of Rauschenberg in many different mediums, and also that he did something unprecedented in the history of printmaking. As the printing continued the two stones moved farther and farther apart from each other so that no two prints are the same. (No two prints are ever the same anyway, but in this case the difference is more obvious.)

However, in a video from 1976 called "The Print World of Tatyana Grosman," Rauschenberg recounts the story differently. He said that the stone broke the first time, and he re-made the stone because he was unhappy that it broke. Then, it broke a second time. He said, "Once I can take, twice I can't...I said [to Blackburn] you broke it twice you print it that way...I won't let anything be wasted." This is very different from the idealized artist-as-innovator that the literature depicts. The way that Rauschenberg tells the story makes it seem as though he was very upset that the stone broke, and of course, blamed the printer who was simply doing his best to make the stone level as it went through the press. I find this interesting because I think it shows the relationship and attitude between artist and printer as one of the "creative genius" vs the artisan, the craftsman. Further, this discrepancy shows how things get mangled and changed over time.

What kills me a little is that as a child I would go to Bob Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop on Seventeenth Street with my father. I would sit at the side and work on a small plate while my father printed, and then we would go downstairs to have lunch at the tiny hole in the wall restaurant where they served rice with butter and french fries. I met Blackburn many times but he died before I became truly interested in printmaking.