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Beside master printer Bill Lagattuta’s office desk is a wall of whitewashed Polaroid photos, a collection of Andy Warhol-esque snapshots.
Lagattuta said he takes photos of the many artists he’s worked with while at Tamarind Institute, after establishing the creative relationship between artist and printer.
“It’s a two-sided thing. It’s kind of a yin-yang,” Lagattuta said.
Lagattuta is the master printer at Tamarind Institute, the world’s only lithographic workshop that offers a two-year master printing program. Tamarind Institute has been affiliated with UNM’s College of Fine Arts since it first moved to New Mexico in 1970.
Lithographic printing focuses on the use of limestone; a printer etches the original work into stone one color at a time. The first year of Tamarind’s program is split into two semesters: the first is a crash course in lithographic technique, while the second gives aspiring lithography apprentices the chance to work with UNM art students on original prints. At the end of the year, one to two students are chosen to work under Lagattuta.
Lagattuta works alongside a new apprentice every year, creating original artwork with artists from around the world. As a master print maker, it’s Lagattuta’s job to work beside the artist on original work. The artist draws an original design on a lithograph stone, and the print maker treats the stones and prints, creating a series of proofs for the artist. He said the relationship between artist and printer, in which the artist learns to trust the printer, is difficult and rewarding.
“It fulfills that creative part of my brain,” he said. “A lot of people ask me ‘Do you make your own work?’ Well, I think I am making work when I’m working with the artist and we come up with something that the artist likes, and it makes me feel good.”
Lagattuta said UNM funds one-third of Tamarind’s budget, leaving the rest solely to the sales of artist prints. He said that as master printer, he does what he can to choose artists who can help reach those funds.
“I feel like it’s my responsibility to help the artist come up with a print that they’re happy with and they’re satisfied with, and hopefully it can sell,” he said. “It’s always a hard thing to figure out what’s going to sell and what’s not going to sell. I might think ‘Oh, wow, this is a great print,’ but it doesn’t sell. Art world is a fickle world.”
Apprentice Kellie Holmes said she was wary after applying for the apprenticeship and looked at graduate schools in case her application fell through. After being accepted at Northern Illinois University, she said a Northern Illinois professor told her she had to take the apprenticeship if she receives it.
“He flat out told me ‘If you get the second year and you turn it down and come here, I will slap you. You take advantage of this,’” Holmes said.
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After getting her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, Holmes flew down to New Mexico to study at the institute. Holmes said she fell in love with lithographic printing, often working the first semester’s seven-day-a-week approach with nary a complaint.
“You’ve got to love the process. If you don’t, what’s the point?” she said. “If you don’t, it’s not going to be up to par with Tamarind’s standards.”
Tamarind Institute Director Marjorie Devon said the program draws artists and printers from around the world. The program accepts only eight printers a year to learn the ins and outs of the limestone printing technique. Devon, Tamarind’s director since 1985, said the program’s heavy student work hours — which range from 60 to 90 hours per week — is what drives the institute’s high standards.
“They understand the intensity, that we really are committed to learning in a way that’s consuming,” Devon said.
