The City's Prints Scene

Weekend, The New York Times, Friday, December 5, 1980
By John Russell


Among galleries that never fail to have top-quality prints by major artists, Castelli Graphics at 4 East 77th Street, Brooke Alexander at 20 West 57th Street and Pace Gallery at 32-34 East 57th Street are well known to everyone. But for adventures in resuscitation I recommend two small galleries very highly. They are Fitch-Febvrel at 5 East 57th Street and Martin Sumers at 50 West 57th Street. In both places, time seems to have stood still since that late 19th century, and the spirit of exploration takes precedence over pre-existing fame and flamboyant success.

The current show at Fitch-Febvrel is primarily of French prints, and it is on the subject of lesbian love. (The English-speaking art world produced only one starter in this context: Peter Milton, whose "Before the Hunt" departs radically from this observer's experience of riding to hounds.) The prints are remarkable both for power and straightforwardness of feeling and for a free-stepping exuberance that causes us to lay the word "pornography" aside.