Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working at Crown Point Press
Featuring 125 working proofs and edition prints produced between 1972 and 2010 at Crown Point Press in San Francisco, one of the most influential printmaking studios of the last half century, Yes, No, Maybe goes beyond celebrating the flash of inspiration and the role of the imagination to examine the artistic process as a sequence of decisions. The stages of intaglio printmaking reveal this process in very particular ways. Among the 25 artists represented are those with long ties to Crown Point Press--Richard Diebenkorn, John Cage, Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, and Wayne Thiebaud--as well as those whose association is more recent, such as Mamma Andersson, Julie Mehretu, Jockum Nordström, Laura Owens, and Amy Sillman.

Northern Mannerist Prints from the Kainen Collection
Ruth Cole Kainen was one of the most important collectors of prints and drawings in recent decades, and bequeathed major works to the National Gallery of Art.  This exhibition--the first of three to focus on central aspects of her bequest--presents some 50 works that embody the sophisticated imagery, extraordinary stylization, and virtuoso technique of the printmaking that flourished in the North Netherlands and at the imperial court of Prague in the late 16th century.  Featured are choice impressions by the creator of the style, Hendrick Goltzius, as well as his outstanding early drawing Ignis.  Also included are exquisite interpretations by the finest engravers of the powerful inventions of Goltzius and the leading Netherlandish painters Cornelis van Haarlem, Abraham Bloemaert, and Bartholomaeus Spranger.  Earlier gifts by Ruth and Jacob Kainen are also on view.