DESCRIPTION OF WORK

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"Most artists create works in editions. I create editions of figures within a work," says Cecily Barth Firestein, a 40-year veteran of painting and printmaking. Her original paintings each depict a single—often arbitrary—element, recreated several times on a canvas to produce a dramatic and ironic effect. Though her work can be categorized as abstract, Firestein states, "I remain primarily a printmaker. As a student, I studied classic etching technology. I felt constrained by the sizelimitations of etching presses and metal plates, as well as the concept of printing works in editions. For a freer approach, I gravitated to the monoprint." Currently, most of Firestein’s works are less like prints and more like works on paper, averaging 40 by 60 inches or larger. Firestein believes the unique variance in her work stems from its transformation.

METHOD OF WORK

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Employing her skills as an etcher with an uncanny sense of color, Firestein distinguishes her work through an artistic process that merges painting and printmaking. "I do the backgrounds primarily on a glass table," she says. I place dampened paper on top and use a steam iron to transfer the image from the glass." It is a laborious but effective technique that forms the foundation of each print. "Next, I tack it to my easel and the direction of the creation begins to form in my mind."

Firestein is drawn to color and admits that color could be considered the subject of her works as much as the figures embedded within each one. "I use tempera paint and, with rags, apply a collage of color to the canvas," she explains. "I concentrate on form and shape and how they relate through strong statements of color." In recent years, she has been drawn to red and white, and has been inclined to use animal etchings, such as fish or elephants, rather than human forms.

Rather than methodically planning each painting, Firestein prefers a spontaneous approach, allowing her works to reveal their meanings and themes to her. Once a painting has been completed, Firestein contemplates it before giving it a name, which is likely a quote from a song or movie that reveals the particular theme.

The jewels of Firestein’s works are the arbitrary elements she plants within each one. For example, upon close inspection of a piece, one might discover camels frolicking in flowers or a fiddler ablaze in red and orange fiery hues. "I just add things as they come to me," she says. "I like to throw something irrelevant or unexpected into each print, hopefully adding wild exuberance and intrigue to them."

Firestein aims to share the joy in her medium through unrestrained use of lusty brushwork, glowing colors, dynamic forms and elegant compositions laced with a grain of subtle humor.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

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Firestein can hardly remember a time when she was not creating. "Since early childhood I have been ‘doing art,’ beginning with painting lessons in Woodstock [New York]." A student of abstract art in graduate school, she studied for a year with Hale Woodruff, a prominent African-American artist who taught her to see abstract in a different way. Brazilian printmaker Roberto De Lamonica helped her hone the techniques of classic etching while she attended the Artists Student League in New York City. She also has studied with Hans Hofmann at his school of art and abstract painter Theodoros Stamos.

BIGGEST BREAK

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Though Firestein is reluctant to attribute her initial success to her gender, being female during the late ’50s in the heady, mainly male arena of the 10th Street era in New York worked to her advantage. In 1959, she was pregnant and preparing for her first show at the Phoenix Gallery on Third Avenue. "Phoenix was a co-op where you had to submit your slides to be considered for a show," she remembers. "So I did, and they wanted to see my studio. I didn’t have one at the time and quickly made my nursery into one—literally overnight." Firestein sold a whole wall of smaller paintings at her first in-person exhibition. Since then she has consistently presented more than 34 solo exhibitions nationwide and abroad, including but not limited to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Delaware Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Freud Museums in London and Vienna. She also has written books about her craft, including Rubbing Craft (Quick Fox, 1977) and Making Paper and Fabric Rubbings (Lark Books, 2001).

Firestein can be reached at:
8 East 96 Street
New York, New York
Tel:  (212) 831-4555
Email: shrinkart@compuserve.com

Her work can be viewed at:
www.art-exchange.com