Rago Auctions

Known for his distinguished acumen for collaboration and innovative printmaking techniques, Garner Tullis is regarded as one of the most prolific printers of the 20th century. Born in Cincinnati in 1939, Tullis’s fascination with print- and papermaking began in earnest while a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania. His non-conformist approach to papermaking led to a Fulbright Scholarship in Florence, where he studied the art of bronze casting and came to understand the importance of creative teamwork. 

Upon his return to the United States in 1965 for a Carnegie Fellowship at Stanford University, Tullis formed close friendships with Arnoldo Pomodoro, Mark Di Suvero, and Peter Volkus, which provided welcome encouragement in the exploration of printmaking while Tullis was simultaneously working to introduce younger artists to the practice. With that end in mind, he opened the International Institute of Experimental Printmaking in Santa Cruz in 1972 and was able to place emphasis on two areas in which he excelled: papermaking and the communication ideas and the transfer of knowledge. 

Over the course of his career, Tullis would work with over 200 artists (some multiple times) including Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Nolan, Dorothea Rockburne, Robert Ryman, Sean Scully, Emilio Vedova and Friedel Dzubas. The creation of monotype prints, his primary focus, appealed to both painters and sculptors and many times, the ideas born in Tullis’s atelier would go on to inform the practices of the artists once they had returned to their own studios. He continued to open a succession of workshops throughout California, New York, Philadelphia, and Italy while also holding teaching positions at Bennington College, California State College, Stanislaus, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Davis, and Harvard University. He was also the first recipient of the Ralph T. King Award for outstanding contributions to printmaking from the Print Club of Cleveland. Today, he is remembered for his groundbreaking printed works and the formative relationships that enabled their creation.