Printmakers You Should Know: Theodore Cuno

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about George C. Miller, a New York printer who helped print some of the twentieth century's great American lithographs. Today, we'll be taking a look at one of his contemporaries, Theodore Cuno, and more specifically, the work he did with Peter Hurd.

Peter Hurd, The Ranch at San Patricio, 1935, lithograph. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Based in Philadelphia, Cuno was originally from Germany. His day job was at the Kitterlinus Lithographic Company in Philadelphia, but by night he was a master printer for artists, printing new works from the basement of his own house. Among the artists he worked with was Louis Lozowick, a Ukranian-born American modernist who had immigrated to the United States in 1906. He also worked with Texas modernist and Dallas Museum director Jerry Bywaters, thanks to an introduction through the PMA's print curator Carl Zigrosser. Philadelphia artist Benton Spruance was another person whose prints benefited from Cuno's technical expertise.

Louis Lozowick (Theodore Cuno, printer), Mural Study: Triborough Bridge, 1936, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=15103

Benton Spruance (Theodore Cuno, printer), Arrangement for Drums, 1941, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=22817

The context in which I know Cuno's work best, however, is his partnership with Peter Hurd. While today Hurd's name is synonymous with large-scale, egg tempera paintings of the New Mexico landscape, during the 1930s you were just as likely to run into his lithographs. Finding large paintings difficult to sell in a Depression-era market, Hurd started exploring lithography as a more economic means means of selling his art.

Peter Hurd, The Night Watchman, 1935, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Hurd took advantage of the medium's affinity to drawing, creating landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes. As he became more comfortable with the medium, he experimented with his style and surface treatment, using washes, scratching, and other means of mark-making to add visual interest. His lithographs were not unlike his paintings of the period, which also employed a wide range of experimental mark-making to add texture.

Peter Hurd, The Windmill Crew, 1936, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Peter Hurd, The Hacienda, 1935, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Hurd split his time between New Mexico and Pennsylvania during the 1930s, and worked on stones in both places. He had his work printed with Cuno, however, so if he completed any stones out west, he had to drive them back east in his truck to have them printed. He and Cuno worked closely together, collaborating on the entire edition.

Peter Hurd, Sermon from Revelations No. 2, 1938, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Peter Hurd, Don Jose Espinoza, 1936, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

In addition to stand-alone lithographs, Cuno also printed Hurd's illustrative prints, most notably the prints for The Return of the Weed, a book of sort stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Horgan. Hurd befriended Horgan while both were cadets at the New Mexico Military Institute, and would collaborate on a few book projects. The Roswell Museum is fortunate enough to have a copy of The Return of the Weed, and it's a beautiful little volume.

Peter Hurd, The Return of the Weed, 1935, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

Hurd stopped making lithographs after the early 1940s, though there was no lack of trying on the part of galleries to get him to return to the stone. While he would pull a late print in the 1960s to accompany a book on his prints, he had moved on to new media, particularly watercolor, and focused on that.

Peter Hurd, Portrait of a Lady (Mrs. Victor Miller), 1938, lithograph on paper. Image courtesy of RMAC.

As for Cuno, I really don't know much else about him. From what I've seen through Hurd's lithographs though, he was an excellent technician, and is definitely a printmaker you should know.

If you want to learn more, check out this book, which is where I learned most of what I know about him: Benton Spruance, the Artist and the Man. Also, I hear the Brandywine River Museum is opening an exhibition of Hurd's prints later this month, so if you're on the East Coast, you can see Cuno's printing skills first-hand.