For about 40 years I’ve followed the production of one of the world’s finest contemporary art printers – Gemini G.E. L. at Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. My father, F. W. Oberg (1913-1981) who founded gallery Ars Studeo in Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark, in the mid-1960s and was a keen long-time art collector bought many prints from Gemini G.E.L. – which means Graphic Editions Limited.
With six years only in school, he wasn’t good enough at writing English to artists, galleries and printers around the world; he asked me to work for him as his secretary and in that way I financed a large part of my studies.
I was therefore immensely happy to find that Gemini was one of the print publishers having a stand in the so-called Limited-editioned works section of Art Basel 2013. Here I met Ellen Grinstein Perliter, daughter of one of the founders of Gemini, Stanley Grinstein (the other two being Sidney Felsen and Ken Tyler).
Here is Ellen, standing in front of two new prints by Ellsworth Kelly who has just turned 80.
- Ellen Grinstein Perliter of Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles in front of two new editions, by Ellsworth Kelly
When I told Ellen about this old Ars Studeo-Gemini relations, what types of prints and how much my father appreciated the policies and qualities of their products, she said – “Please see yourself as part of the Gemini family.” It was a touching comment, indeed – and I will. As a matter of fact, I am already thinking of visiting them and see on-site the birth place of so many exquisite works that I have lived with since these years.
You may take a tour around Gemini G.E.L. here. Finally, The National Gallery of Art in Washington is the home of the flourishing Gemini G.E.L. Archive, which is intended to include one example of each edition published at Gemini while preserving selected rare proof impressions, unique working material, and related photographs and documents.
And by that happy encounter, I end my four-part report from Art Basel 2013. There first can be found here.