The Vermillion Suite: Contemporary Prints from the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Printmaking has a long history that dates back to ancient civilizations and artists such as Rembrandt and Picasso created prints alongside their more traditional paintings or sculpture. At the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM), prints make up a significant portion of the historic art collection. Serving as documentation of the visual history of our region, these prints also reflect the interests and tastes of a public that was hungry for images of Texas and the Southwest.

In the 1930s and 1040s, during the high-water mark of printmaking in Texas and the surrounding region, print collectives such as the Lone Star Printmakers in Dallas and the Prairie Printmakers in Kansas created and exhibited sets of prints regularly, in part because they were so easy to distribute. Often selling for as little as five dollars, these prints were also very affordable and highly collectible. Depicting our unique landscape, people and architecture, prints by artists such as Jerry Bywaters and Berger Sandzen helped to define regional art in America.

The suite of prints exhibited here was produced by Vermillion Press, a print workshop founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2009, Vermillion entered into an arrangement with West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) and Sunset Art Center to establish a print workshop in Amarillo, Texas. Managed by WTAMU art faculty, that collaboration worked with contemporary artists to produce a series of fine art prints over the next six years.