Polly Apfelbaum | Heart and Soul – There Are Many Hearts | 2020 | Durham Press Limited Edition Fine Art Prints and Multiples

Polly Apfelbaum and Durham Press are pleased to announce the completion of a portfolio of nine prints titled Heart and Soul. The woodblock prints on handmade Japanese paper feature a heart motif and measure 16 ½ inches squared in five colors, each in an edition of thirty.

Heart and Soul was developed in tandem with a series of monoprints, There Are Many Hearts, of the same composition in a variety of colors and sizes. These works draw from Pennsylvania German folk art and twentieth-century modernism, presenting a repeating yet playful pattern that enabled Apfelbaum to explore new chromatic combinations.

The folk art of Pennsylvania that once decorated Apfelbaum's childhood home and has long fascinated her has now served as the impetus for her most recent prints. Specifically, Apfelbaum's new works have been inspired by the Pennsylvania German who have often sewn heart shapes into quilts and included them on hand-painted "barn stars" that adorn the sides of many of the region's agricultural buildings, as well as incorporating them on Fraktur - illuminated calligraphic drawings used to document occasions such as births, baptisms, and new homes.

At the Durham Press Studio, Apfelbaum first used the featured heart shape to create monoprints, conceiving an interlocking composition that recalls the designs of Alexander Girard and other modernists. Featuring square formats with 14, 25, or 79 inch edges, the three sizes range from intimate to all-embracing, with various scales and palettes imbuing each with a singular temperament – an attribute affirmed by the series title, There Are Many Hearts, which references a valentine Apfelbaum’s great aunt made for her grandmother. “There are many hearts,” it reads. “Broken, yellow, sad, beware, black, one pure gold.”

These monoprints quickly gave rise to Heart and Soul. Compared to many other of Apfelbaum’s collaborations with Durham Press, often comprised of dozens and sometimes hundreds of separately inked blocks, these prints were created through a relatively pared-down process. As a result, the artist chose more experimental palettes – rather than focusing on primary and secondary hues, she mixed colors into colors, yielding unique shades that she then combined on paper in various compositions. Some, whether by uniting one chromatic family or pairing complimentary colors, are easy to love at first sight. Others challenge the eye, revealing conflict and tension – but perhaps leading to a greater love in time.