Richard Sloat

Richard Sloat was born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1945 and currently lives in Manhattan. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania with Rackstaw Downes and the Art Students League. He has lectured in New York and California and was recently elected to the National Academy. He is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) and previously served as president.

He has been in many shows in the United States and Asia. He has received many awards including the Joseph M. Kaveney Memorial Award at the Janet Turner National Print Competition, 1999; The Alfred D. Crimi Award at Audubon Artists, 1998; Purchase Prize at Broome Street Gallery Invitational, 1998; American Artist Award at Audubon Artists, 1996; and has twice won the Leo Meisner Prize at the National Academy of Design.

Sloat is one of those rare artists who works his images in stages or in print terms, states. Often one of his prints might go through ten states before he finally gets to the final or published state. Because he might work on a plate over a period of many years, he will occasionally decide that it is finished and print a small edition. Later, he will rework the plate adding aquatint and then edition the plate in a later state. This is not to say that he is abusing the edition sizes. In an article that Sloat wrote, he discusses in detail one of his prints and how it goes from the early states to the final state with two distinct editions. One in state five is entitled El Passing and the final version Twilight El in states twelve and thirteen.

Richard Sloat’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous museums including; the British Museum, London, the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, the National Academy Museum, New York City, the Portland Art Museum and the Library of Congress.

Artist’s Statement:

To me to be an artist printmaker is to be in love with the graphic medium. Woodcut and etching have been my field of creation. Both these forms of prints exude a visual clarity and depth of feeling. We, in viewing them, are tied into the visual world at an essential level, an affirmation of our own life’s journey.

Both woodcut and etching are transformative mediums that force the artist and print viewer to see and think of the world in a specific, graphic way. One type of transformation takes place as the artist works out the image on the etching plate or woodcut block. The working must be indirect, essentially a drawing is changed into a print. One can think of a Durer drawing which is not the same as a Durer woodcut, or a Rembrandt drawing which is not the same as his etching. The image can be only revealed when a print is pulled. Even for an experienced printmaker, this can be a truly magical transformation. Another part of this transformation is that one must think in terms of the medium in viewing the outside world. A print necessitates a simplicity, the extracting of the essential, form, line, light and shadow. If done well this gives clarity to the phantasmagoria of viewing the world, and brings us to its visual essence, which is so satisfying, the world seen afresh. Beyond the lovely feeling of visual pleasure, if we are not cynics, we attain and confirm meaning to our being. Our world is larger, more interesting, of deeper feeling and yes even more beautiful.