Paulson Bott Press is a printmaking studio, gallery, and publisher of contemporary fine art prints in Berkeley, California. Many of their publications are etchings.
Contents
History
In 1993 Pam Paulson, who had previously worked at Crown Point Press, began conducting workshops in intaglio printmaking and producing editions with local artists from an 800 square-foot studio in Emeryville, California. In 1996 she and Renee Bott co-founded Paulson Press, moving to a larger studio space in Emeryville. Their first publications were Chris Brown's "Train Series" prints; these quickly sold out, providing capital for the business to begin extending invitations to artists from outside the Bay Area, starting with Radcliffe Bailey. In 1999 the press relocated to 9th Street in Berkeley, where they produced and exhibited prints by artists such as Brown and Deborah Oropallo. In 2009 they moved to their current location on 4th Street in Berkeley.
Prints from Paulson Bott Press are included in the collections of the Achenbach Foundation, the Anderson Collection, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Austin Museum of Art, Bank of America, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Chazen Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the De Saisset Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Elgin Community College, Fidelity Investments, the de Young Museum, the Hallmark Collection, the High Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, JP Morgan Chase, the Kresge Art Museum, the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the McNay Art Museum, the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, the Museum of Modern Art, the Nancy and Joachim Bechtle Private Collection, the National Gallery of Art, the New York Public Library Schomburg Center, the Palmer Museum of Art, the Polk Museum of Art, the Progressive Corporation, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Tubman African American Museum, the U.S. Department of State, the University of Michigan, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In a 2011 interview, Pam Paulson stated: "We plan projects with emerging, mid-career, and blue-chip artists. We keep a balance."
Gee's Bend
In 1999, Mary Lee and Louisiana Bendolph of Gee's Bend, Alabama were invited to the press where they printed and published editions of color aquatints with spit bite and softground etching. The press set up sewing machines so that the Bendolphs could compose their designs as quilts. The printers then made impressions of the quilts using softground to create etching plates which were used as matrices for prints on paper. A second project included two more Gee's Bend quilters.
Artists
Besides those already named, artists whose prints have been published by Paulson Bott Press include: