The Paris Print Workshop L'Atelier René Tazé

Fitch-Febvrel Gallery press release, May 1981


Paris has long been one of the great centers of printmaking creativity. Supporting this activity, there have existed since the 19th and early 20th centuries a number of ateliers where works could be printed by artisans who might, themselves, more properly be called artists. The names of Clot and Lemercier (lithography) and Delâtre (intaglio) are inseparable from those of the peintres-graveurs of the late 19th century, just as Mourlot, Leblanc, Lacourière and Frélaut, and Crommelynck were instrumental in the printing of many of the finest prints of the first half of the 20th century.

René Tazé undertook an apprenticeship with Monsieur Lallier at the atelier Leblanc when he was 15. He proved especially gifted, and was soon executing the complicated, multi-plate color prints of major clients such as Yozo Hamaguchi and Friedrich Meckseper. In 1978, after nearly ten years with Leblanc, Tazé joined Bruno Krief, another young printer, to establish the Atelier René Tazé. With a nucleus of younger artists whose work they had been printing for some years, the Atelier René Tazé quickly established itself as a vital center of printmaking creativity, where scores of artists bring their plates for scrupulous and sympathetic printing.

The present exhibition will illustrate some of the printmaking activity with which the Atelier René Tazé is involved. Along with well-established artists such as Desmazières, Moreh, and Mohlitz, the exhibition includes the work of several promising artists who have been making prints for only a few years, such as Houtin, James, Krief and Mongrolle.