A few years ago Anne Buckwalter made a series of drawings of beds. At the time, she thought that the composition of those drawings, a single bed surrounded by the white space of the paper, seemed like it would be a good fit for a print.
A bed, Buckwalter says, “perfectly symbolizes the collision of many conflicting elements: sickness, sexuality, comfort, discomfort, consciousness, unconsciousness.”
The images also aligned with other elements the Pennsylvania-born artist was exploring in her practice; objects, all of the same color, strewn around or nestled into visual fields of intense detail.
Artspace is proud to announce that one of those images is indeed now a print, the latest in our increasingly revered collaborative editions with some of the most important artists at work today.
Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024 is an edition of 40 plus 5 APs, silkscreened with chine collé on fabric paper, kozo paper, and cotton broadcloth with spot varnish. Each edition is individually hand embellished by Buckwalter in gouache on Hahnemuhle Copperplate Warm Tone 300gsm paper 21 ½ x 16 inches (paper size), making each edition unique to the buyer.
“In the original painting I made for the image, I had painted a small decorative motif on the headboard of the bed in the style of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch painted furniture,” Buckwalter tells Artspace in our interview below.
“When we were discussing options for how to print this little embellishment, I thought it might be fun to hand-paint the individual motifs on each print, so every edition would be slightly different from the others without sacrificing visual continuity.”
Anne Buckwalter in her studio - photography Anne Buckwalter
Buckwalter was born in Lancaster, PA and received her BFA from Tyler School of Art, and her MFA from Maine College of Art. Her paintings are both quiet and disquieting, using obscurity, tension, and representational space to investigate the emptiness of social constructs. They have been highlighted in New American Paintings, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, and The New York Times. You can read more about her practice here.
Buckwalter’s work is included in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami; Zuzeum, Beijing; Art Museum of West Virginia, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, among others. Her work has also been exhibited in Boston, Montréal, Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, and Rome, among other cities across the world.
Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024 is produced in partnership with the New Art Dealers Association (NADA) and will be on view at the New York edition of the NADA art fair this May. Proceeds from the sale of the limited edition will support NADA’s mission as a not-for-profit collective of professionals working with contemporary art. On the eve of the release, we asked Buckwalter about the creation of the edition.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024
Anne Buckwalter signing the edition in her studio - photography Anne Buckwalter
What made you decide upon this image for an edition? I made this image specifically for this project. A few years ago I made a series of drawings of beds, and the composition of those drawings, with a single bed surrounded by the white space of the paper, seemed like it would be a good fit for a print.
And I wanted to make something new that felt aligned with what I’m currently exploring in my practice. I was attracted to the idea of having there be some objects nestled into a visual field of intense detail — so I knew I wanted to paint an intricate quilt to put on the bed and have there be objects strewn about that were all the same color, thinking they could be printed with the same process.
I wasn’t sure exactly which printmaking processes would be right for the image, but I thought that either silkscreen or letterpress (the only two processes I have experience with) might be appropriate options. Ultimately, after some experimentation, we went with a combination of processes: silkscreen and digital chine collé with spot varnishing and hand-painted additions.
These editions are a mix of paper and cloth, can you tell us why you wanted this particular material? Having the quilt on the bed printed on cloth-covered paper was a brilliant suggestion that Lane, the master printer at Shoestring Press, made. I loved the idea of having such a direct physical reference to the fabric of the quilt. If you look closely at the quilt in the print, you can see the weave of the cloth; this gentle change in texture distinguishes it from the rest of the surface.
I find a lot of pleasure in noticing the subtle textural shifts as my eyes move around the print: the black objects have spot-gloss on them, so they have a sheen that makes them stand out a bit; the headboard and legs of the bed are silkscreened and have a beautiful matte opacity, and the chine colleé elements of the bedsheets (printed on paper) and quilt (printed on fabric) have their own distinct surface.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024
Photography Garrett Carroll
You are making additions to each edition, what form will these additions take and what is the thinking behind them? In the original painting I made for the image, I had painted a small decorative motif on the headboard of the bed in the style of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch painted furniture. When we were discussing options for how to print this little embellishment, I thought it might be fun to hand-paint the individual motifs on each print, so every edition would be slightly different from the others without sacrificing visual continuity.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024
Photography Garrett Carroll
There is an apparent 'innocence' to the items you include in your paintings yet the inclusion of the hairbrush seems particularly loaded. Could you discuss its role in this edition? The hairbrush is something I associate with grooming, or the performance of a certain type of femininity. I think it’s symbolic, for sure, but I also see its significance contextually situated alongside the other objects in the image, which fall somewhere in the spectrum of the erotic and the mundane.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024
Photography Garrett Carroll
What is it about the mix of comfortable domesticity and S&M accessories – the banal and the erotic - that intrigues you? Well, I think the banal and the erotic are socially perceived as opposing or conflicting forces, but I’m very interested in the everydayness of eroticism. I think culturally we consider themes of sexuality and the body to be taboo, or provocative, but I’m interested in actively questioning and dismantling that. What is more universal than inhabiting a body and reckoning with its perplexing appetites? I’m particularly interested in the normalization of feminine desire and queerness—because these are aligned with my own lived experiences and because they have been so stigmatized and complicated throughout history—but I’m invested in the labor of normalizing sexuality in general, and my work is a way of engaging with that labor.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024 
Photography Garrett Carroll
Why and when did these items first begin to appear in your work and how did people react? I started actively including objects referring to sex and eroticism during a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2018 — I was working on a project at that point that involved using pictographic alphabets to translate hard-to-talk-about subjects, and some of the visual language ended up involving sex toys, condoms, and things like that. I think I have always been interested in subjects that feel deeply connected to interiority or private life, though. I can’t remember how people initially responded, but my hope is that my work invites some discomfort as well as a sense of familiarity and can kind of set up and subvert expectations at the same time.
There’s a voyeuristic element to the domestic scenes you depict, yet you are rarely 'present'. Could you explain this a little for us? I do think of my work as self-portraiture, in that it is an amalgamation of my own questions, curiosities, fantasies, and memories. But there is very little in the narrative content that is literal: these interiors are much more invented psychological spaces than real or remembered ones, and my intention is much more about creating a feeling rather than telling a specific story.
Anne Buckwalter signing the edition in her studio - photography Anne Buckwalter
How did you come upon the Dutch painting style you’re known for? I was born and raised in Lancaster, a part of south-eastern Pennsylvania that is known for its Pennsylvania Dutch culture. This regionally-specific culture and its unique traditions — particularly its folk art, culinary, and religious traditions— were a huge part of my childhood. I grew up around a lot of domestic crafts, hand painted furniture, Amish quilts and textiles, and this aesthetic is very much something I connect to a sense of home.
What do you like about making editions? I have a great deal of respect for printmakers — some of my dearest friends are experts in making multiples! I have a few prints made by friends (I know and love many artists working at Pickwick Independent Press in Portland, Maine), and I have attempted printmaking a few times, but I am just an impatient painter at heart, so I feel grateful to have been invited to work on this project with folks who know what they’re doing and can do it so well. I hope the print invites unexpected conversation.
Take a closer look at Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024 here.
ANNE BUCKWALTER - Self-Portrait with Hairbrush, Pen, Book, Leash, and Collar, 2024
Photography Garrett Carroll
