Technical Analysis of the Colorants and Print Techniques in Frank Stella’s Tyler Graphics Bag (1984)

SUMMARY
This research will be presented at the upcoming Annual Conference of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) in 2024.

TITLE
What’s On the Bag? Technical Analysis of the Colorants and Printing Techniques Utilized in Frank Stella’s 1984 Tyler Graphics Bag

ABSTRACT
In 1991, the Nevada Museum of Art presented an exhibition of shopping bags belonging to the private collection of J. Scott Patnode. The exhibition, titled “It’s on the Bag,”[1] aimed to bridge the gap between “functional” and “fine” art by celebrating the shopping bag as a ubiquitous and accessible reflection of consumerism and pop culture at the close of the 20th century, and many of the bags on display were commercially printed with reproduced or commissioned imagery by popular artists. One such artist represented in the exhibition was the American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Frank Stella. Commissioned by the now-closed chain of Dayton’s department stores to promote the 1984 expansion
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, Stella’s bag was titled Tyler Graphics Bag for the purposes of the exhibition.

Tyler Graphics Bag is named for the Tyler Graphics Studio, where the bag was produced[2]. Under master printer Kenneth Tyler, the studio collaborated with numerous other artistic luminaries of the 1970s and 1980s, including David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, and Roy Lichenstein, and was actively exploring new technologies for digital printing. Stella’s Tyler Graphics Bag is printed on all five sides, with compositions by Stella on the two largest panels and promotional information about the Walker Art Center’s new galleries written on the smaller side panels. Prints from the same edition are described inconsistently in the market, sometimes as offset lithographs without clarifying the digital nature of their manufacture, contributing to lack of clarity around the media of the original design and the methods of production.

Two of the Dayton’s Stella bags are in the collection of The Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where, in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, technical analysis of the bags was carried out to characterize the colorants and printing techniques employed in their manufacture. The bags were analyzed using multiband imaging, portable Raman spectroscopy, and reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (rFTIR) to characterize the media and colorants used in their production. Microfading testing (MFT) was also used to classify the light sensitivity of the identified colorants to establish possible display recommendations. The manufacturing processes were explored through microscopic examination, which revealed evidence that the images on the shopping bags were created by digitally mimicking offset analogue printmaking techniques; there is a faux woodgrain in the background of the printed composition, while the overlapping marks in the center suggest stone lithography and screenprinting techniques, all of which are ersatz, produced instead with halftones of combined gray spot color and CMYK color separation[3]. This research sheds new light on digital printing techniques and collaborations between one of the foremost American artists and printing studios of the 1980s.

Endnotes:
[1] Patnode, J. Scott. It’s On The Bag. Nevada Museum of Art, 1992.
[2] Tyler, Kenneth E. Tyler Graphics: Catalogue Raisonné, 1974-1985. 1st ed. Minneapolis : New York: Walker Art Center ; Abbeville Press, 1987.
[3] Jürgens, Martin C. The Digital Print: Identification and Preservation. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2009.