This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 28, 2009 - The year's end is a natural time to reminisce, so the mists of nostalgia are extra thick right now. Pair this with the Dec. 4 closing of a show of large scale prints by Peter Marcus and Joan Hall at George Mason University in Virginia, and the setting is ripe for a little reflection on the remarkable 30-year working relationship between these two St. Louis artists.
Back in the late 1960s, Marcus came to St. Louis to teach printmaking at Washington University. Within a few years, he had built a huge printing press, organized a collaborative workshop manned by students, taken on print jobs for outside artists, and established what would become Island Press.
In 1978 he was joined by Joan Hall, and together they made Island Press what it is today: one of the finest presses in the country for non-traditional, large-scale printmaking. Marcus retired from Washington University in 1999, but Joan Hall carries on as the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art and director of Island Press.
Marcus makes collographs combining architectural and organic forms, photographic and hand-drawn imagery. The large-scale works are elegiac, memories of place softened by the passage of time.
Hall infuses floating sheets of handmade paper with abstract patterns and ethereal colors. Her work, too, evokes the processes of transformation wrought by memory.
Together, Hall and Marcus share a commitment to visionary ideas, a belief in the power of collaboration, and a no-holds-barred approach to artmaking.
Their presence in St. Louis has contributed mightily to the city's durable, thriving art scene. May their energy continue to inspire us as we get ready to leave another year.
Ivy Cooper, a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon's art critic.