SAGA Show At SHU

FAIRFIELD — Sacred Heart University’s Gallery of Contemporary Art is offering an exhibit of still-life works by members of Society of American Graphic Arts (SAGA) through March 4.

“SAGA Still-Life” is composed of prints by the following 17 member artists: Linda Adato, Michael Whitaker Arike, William Behnken, Susan E. Carter, Ann Chernow, Konstantin Chmutin, Joseph Essig, Robert Kipniss, Marion Lerner-Levine, Nick Patten, Richard Sloat, James Reed, Mary Telchman, Carol Wax, Idaherma Williams, Herman Zaage and Mark Zunino. All of the artists are represented in the collection of major museums in the United States and Europe.

The exhibit features diverse print-making mediums such as aquatint, mezzotint, monotype, lithographs, etchings, woodblocks, and combinations of these processes. The works range from carefully rendered, traditional still-life elements to unusual juxtapositions of items with abstract grounds.

SAGA represents a group of artist-printmakers, each of whom is elected by a group of their peers. SAGA’s goal is to promote printmaking as a fine art. The group was originally founded as the Brooklyn Society of Etchers in 1915 to advance the cause of etching which, due to the spontaneous nature of drawing onto a grounded copper plate, was perceived as more closely reflecting the artist’s creative impulses.

Acknowledging the need to recognize the wealth of artists outside the Brooklyn and New York, the society organized an international show with great success in 1922. Early exhibitors of SAGA included Henri Matisse, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, Mary Cassatt and John Taylor Arms. In 1931, the group became the Society of American Etchers, resulting in the geographical expansion of its membership.

By the 1940s, additional printmaking techniques had gained respect and recognition as fine art. In the process of including artists working in these various techniques, the group again changed its name to the Society of American Etchers, Gravers, Lithographers and Woodcutters in 1947. Shortly afterwards, in 1952, the simpler, geographically and technically inclusive name, the Society of American Graphic Artists, was finally adopted.

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue, is open Monday through Thursday, noon to 7 pm, and Sunday, noon to 4 pm. For more information, call 203/365-7650.