Typographic Jazz, The Monoprints of Jack Stauffacher explores the iconic Bay Area printer's most playful and improvisational work. Stauffacher's experiments in inking and layering led to an extraordinary body of unique monoprints. This exhibition looks beyond the methods displayed in his well-known portfolio editions of wood type prints, and includes his sketches, iterative proofs, and other unfinished work to help us understand his process and give us a peek into his mind. This rarely seen body of work demonstrates masterful use (and misuse) of the tools at his disposal as well as the creative potential of letterpress with wood type. Through his use of abstraction, color, form, rotation, overprinting, ink manipulation, and transparency, Jack's prints remind the viewer that design not only involves planning and precision, but also randomness and spontaneity. Each piece reveals its own history and reminds us of the inherent human touch necessary in the making of art.

Early Experiments

Jack Stauffacher taught at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in the early 60s, where he first experimented with using letterpress to make artistic prints. Most were on square paper, printed from metal type, and explored overprinting and rotation.

The Box

In 1966, another printer in Jack’s building in San Francisco offered Jack some wood type, and he filled one large box with a random selection of letter blocks. He took no complete fonts, picked the most interesting forms, and chose a few split or broken blocks too. He called it his “Toy Box”, and the remainder of the prints in this show were made using its contents.