A Growing Legacy: Beth Van Hoesen
June 30 – September 16, 2012
Beth Van Hoesen was born in Boise Idaho in 1926. She studied printmaking at Stanford University and the Californai School of Fine Arts, San Francisco. She lived most of her adult life in San Francisco with her husband Mark Adams in a house and studio near the Castro District. She passed away in 2010 leaving a legacy of over 600 prints.
Van Hoesen’s prints are valued by collectors and museums due to her ability to cut something down to its very essence. She was extremely detail-oriented as well as being dedicated to realism, a style that was not in vogue during her lifetime. For her prints of everyday objects, animals, and people, she could make as many of fifty drawings in preparation. Her prints reveal a fascination with line, and a respect for the printmaking process. Early in her career she printed her own editions, but later went towards preparing the plate herself and providing printers with thorough instruction.
The Dennos is proud to have received a recent gift of twenty-seven Van Hoesen prints from the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust, which are now part of our permanent collection and the growing legacy that the Museum offers our community.
Image: Beth Van Hoesen, Buster, 1982, Spit-bite aquatint, drypoint, and etching with roulette and retroussage; handcolored with watercolor
