Artists’ Projects
Barbara Bloom, Commemorative Stamps, Art Journal, 1929–2005, 2005
36 perforated stamps, color offset printing on gummed paper, 9-5/8 x 8 in. (24.4 x 20.3 cm), signed edition of 100
Price
$50 (inserted in a glassine envelope for mailing and storage)
About the Work
Barbara Bloom is known for her printed projects in a wide range of media and formats, including artist’s books, prints, installations, and even a picnic basket with paper goods. For the witty critique of her Commemorative Stamps, Bloom closely examined the archive of Art Journal (printed with several variations in title since 1929). She then designed a sheet of gummed and perforated stamps that use covers of back issues of the magazine to create a compact visual essay on trends in the history and criticism of art since 1929. The artist notes, “Our culture strangely gives value to the large and is dismissive of the diminutive. I am interested in the relationship between large monuments and memorials and small mementos, charms, and keepsakes, and I hope to question some of the set notions about their comparative importance. I have a particular love for commemorative stamps, as they seem the perfect mnemonic device. They are a small and portable memorial.”