Marguerite Saegesser

The monotype is a print and one-of-a-kind at the same time-Marguerite Saegesser was a master of this technique. Marguerite Saegesser (1922?2011) achieved fame in the US, her adopted country for many years, where her prints and paintings were repeatedly shown in group and solo exhibitions in California and New York over a period of two decades. In her native Switzerland, however, the artist and her multifaceted oeuvre are yet to be discovered. This book fills this gap, featuring Saegesser's art with a special focus on the monotype, a printing technique developed in the 17th century and producing only a single original at a time. It also demonstrates how Saegesser, who initially studied sculpture in Lausanne, found her artistic destiny in America. Key to her evolution was San Francisco's lively art scene of the late 1970s, and in particular the painter Sam Francis, an outstanding representative of action painting and abstract expressionism, who became her friend and precursor. His fascination with the monotype quickly transferred to Saegesser, who soon achieved mastery in it and made a significant contribution to the revival of the historic technique. Text in English and German. AUTHOR: Helen Hirsch is an art historian and director of Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland. SELLING POINTS: . First monograph on Swiss-American artist Marguerite Saegesser (1922?2011) . Focuses on Saegesser's monotypes, a historic printing process that the artist played a major role in reviving in the 20th century . Examines Marguerite Saegesser's artistic evolution in the environment of Sam Francis and the San Francisco art scene of the 1970s 85 colour, 28 b/w illustrations