Gemini G.E.L.: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1966–2005
The 1990s

The 1990s saw Gemini continuing to work with artists to produce a remarkable range of prints and objects. Kenneth Price, whose earliest Gemini prints such as the Figurine Cup Series (39.1–39.3) date back to 1969, expanded into new territory in recent years with polychrome ceramic editions such as Chet (39.25) and California Cup (39.23). Due to their unusual form as well as their settings within wooden display boxes, these works blurred the line between vessel and sculpture. Bruce Nauman was another artist who renewed his Gemini connections in the 1990s. Nauman, who beginning in the early 1970s had completed many extraordinary word/image prints at Gemini (36.1–36.16), returned to create a series titled Fingers and Holes (36.33–36.43) which were prints that explored gestures of the body and hand in lithographs and etchings.

The arrival of Frenchman Daniel Buren at Gemini in the last year of the 1980s paralleled a general heightened awareness of European art developments during this period. Buren's conceptualist approach incorporates installation considerations into his prints. For example, Five Out of Eleven (8.2) presents the wall as an integral part of the print. The hanging height of the panels is determined according to the wall's dimensions and the striped panels, sliced on the diagonal, expose wall through the frame to further emphasize the unity of the site and artwork. The title refers to the five colors used in this particular impression of the print, which have been selected from the 11 colors used in the entire edition. Each set of sheets is a unique arrangement, meaning that any one piece is different from that of any other within the group, thus subverting the idea of a uniform edition. During this period, Gemini also turned its attention to conceptualism close to home by working with the Californian John Baldessari. Baldessari's nine published works took advantage of the ability of lithograph and screenprint to cover broad expanses of color. This quality allowed him to cover key silhouettes of figures with flat color. Several works in the series, such as Two Bowlers (with Questioning Person) (4.6), comprise two panels, essentially splitting the print down the middle in a review of parts and wholes.

In the last year of his life, Gemini cultivated the art of Allen Ginsberg. Best known as a poet and political activist, Ginsberg worked at Gemini to create six editions of prints. One, The Ballad of The Skeletons (55.5), represents a complex and multifaceted world through a presentation of interwoven text and image. The handwritten poem gathers many polar viewpoints and is illustrated with an aggregate of drawings contributed by nine artists representing many different styles. This collective spirit, celebrating art as the product of multiple imaginations, viewpoints, and sensibilities revealed in the same entity, echoes the spirit and substance of the Gemini workshop.

Art and Technology | The 1960s | The 1970s | Robert Rauschenberg
Ellsworth Kelly | Jasper Johns | David Hockney | Sam Francis | Roy Lichtenstein
The 1980s | Jonathan Borofsky | Richard Serra | The 1990s | Elizabeth Murray
Into the Fourth Decade | Toward the Future