Franklin Feldman: Printmaker

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I attended New York City's High School of Music and Art. While in college I designed and illustrated the basketball programs for the games at Madison Square Garden. A lifelong ambition at the time to be a professional artist was temporarily sidelined as I submitted an application to law school, and became a lawyer. Although many artists studied law, such as Matisse and Kandinsky, most never tried to combine both disciplines. I determined to do both. And while starting to practice law, I started going to The Art Students League two evenings a week, which I continued for ten years. This was followed by many more years working at Pratt Graphics Center and the Parsons Division of New School University.

As a lawyer, I developed a speciality in art law, taught seminars in art law at Columbia Law School (originally with the late Kirk Varnedoe), and co-authored (with Stephen E. Weil of The Hirshhorn Museum) a book, Art Law (Little, Brown & Co.), which was selected by Scribes as the best law book published in 1986.

Art was not, however, to be bested. In 1983, while actively practicing law, I spent a number of weeks as a quest artist-in-residence at Yaddo, the artist retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York. There, in an idyllic setting, I had an opportunity to concentrate on creating images which might be useful for later prints.

In addition to executing single prints, I have produced more than a dozen limited edition books that incorporate my graphic work. The books range from those with miniature etchings to linoleum cuts, large etchings, carborundum prints, monotypes, silhouettes, and cover a variety of subject matters. The edition size varies from one to a maximum of twenty six. All are bound and generally encased in a slip case.

Some of my work has received special recognition, including: The Archival Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Purchase Award. 20th National Juried Exhibition, The Print Club of Albany (1988), Prize, Etching, Sharon Creative Arts Foundation; International Miniature Show, Cadaques, Spain (1983-1988); International Miniature Show, New York (1989); Prints International-1990 (Silvermine, curated by Ken Tyler); and traveling exhibitions of The Society of American Graphics Artists, of which I am a member.

Copies of the books and prints have been acquired by a number of public rare book and print collections, including The New York Public Library (Print Division and Dance Collection of the Performing Arts); The University of Texas at El Paso (Rare Book Library); Harvard University (The Houghton Library); Brown University (John Hay Library); Princeton University (Rare Book Library); The Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Hebrew University College; Portland Art Museum (Lynd Ward Memorial Collection); and the British Museum (Department of Prints and Drawings).

A catalog of my work, entitled Franklin Feldman--Selected Graphic Work 1958-2004 was published by Indian Mountain Press in 2005. The catalog is soft cover and contains 150 images (134 intaglios, 12 transfer prints, and 4 limited edition books). The catalog includes essays by Janis Conner and Kathy Caraccio. Price: $35.