Polly Apfelbaum and Durham Press have completed a series of monoprints alongside a portfolio edition featuring the heart motif. Produced in relief in a variety of sizes, these works draw from Pennsylvania German folk art and twentieth-century modernism, presenting a repeating yet playful pattern that enabled her to explore new chromatic combinations.The folk art of Pennsylvania, where Apfelbaum grew up, has long fascinated her. It decorated her childhood home and has now served as the impetus for her most recent prints. Specifically, Apfelbaum’s new works have been inspired by the Pennsylvania German who have often sewn heart shapes into quilts and included them on hand-painted “barn stars” that adorn the sides of many of the region’s agricultural buildings, as well as incorporating them on Fraktur—illuminated calligraphic drawings used to document births, baptisms, and new homes, among other occasions.
At the Durham Press studio, Apfelbaum first used the featured heart shape to create monoprints, conceiving an interlocking composition that recalls the designs of Alexander Girard and other modernists. Featuring square formats with 14, 25, or 79 inch edges, the three sizes range from intimate to all-embracing, with the various scales and palettes imbuing each with a singular temperament—an attribute affirmed by the series title, There Are Many Hearts, which references a valentine Apfelbaum’s great aunt made for her grandmother. “There are many hearts,” it reads. “Broken, yellow, sad, beware, black, one pure gold.”
These monoprints quickly gave rise to Heart and Soul, a portfolio of 9 woodblock prints each measuring 16 1/2 inches squared and containing five colors in an edition of 30. Compared to many of Apfelbaum’s collaborations with Durham Press, often comprised of dozens and sometimes hundreds of separately inked blocks, these prints were created through a relatively pared-down process. As a result, the artist developed more experimental palettes. Rather than focusing on primary and secondary hues, she mixed colors into colors, yielding pastels and other unique shades that she then combined on paper in various ways. Some, whether by one uniting one chromatic family or pairing complimentary colors, are easy to love at first sight. Others challenge the eye, revealing conflict and tension—but perhaps leading to a greater love in time. There Are Many Hearts and Heart and Soul, as well as many other prints created by Apfelbaum over the past two decades, are available directly through Durham Press.