This exquisite silkscreen by George Earl Ortman (1926–2015), titled Untitled, originates from the landmark 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters). Published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, and printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, in Untitled, Ortman channels the rigor, symmetry, and architectonic clarity that define his mature style, merging geometric precision with symbolic abstraction to create a composition that resonates with philosophical depth and structural intensity.
Executed as a silkscreen on Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper, this work measures 20 x 24 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. Printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, one of the most capable American screenprinting ateliers of the mid-20th century.
Artwork Details:
Artist: George Earl Ortman (1926–2015)
Title: Untitled, from X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), 1964
Medium: Silkscreen on Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper
Dimensions: 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 60.96 cm)
Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued
Date: 1964
Publisher: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Printer: Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven
Edition: D
Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium
Provenance: From the 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Notes:
Excerpted from the folio, This portfolio was commissioned and printed in an attempt to extend as much of the visual impact as possible of ten artists to paper and to make these prints available to collectors who might not otherwise have such a vivid slice of the artist. The dry surface of screening seemed to be most apt to translate the effect of their painting, both the flatness which is the unifying bond between the ten, and the insistance of paint on the surface of canvas so like the visible heft of ink on paper here. Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., Curator of Printings.
About the Publication:
X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published in 1964 by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, stands as one of the most ambitious and influential printmaking endeavors of postwar American art. Conceived under the direction of curator Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., the project sought to capture and translate the defining visual languages of ten leading American painters of the era—Stuart Davis, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Adolph Gottlieb, George Ortman, Larry Poons, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein—into original silkscreens. Each artwork was created as an autonomous work that embodied the formal, chromatic, and conceptual principles of its respective artist. The choice of silkscreen printing, executed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., was central to the portfolio’s purpose: its dry, matte surface and capacity for crisp, saturated color allowed for a faithful translation of the painters’ flatness, surface tension, optical effects, and graphic precision. Organized and published by a major American museum at a moment of seismic change in contemporary art, X + X marked a turning point in institutional engagement with editioned works, representing one of the first concerted efforts by a museum to commission an ensemble of original graphics from the leading figures of its time. The portfolio captured the pulse of 1960s American painting—from Hard-Edge abstraction to Pop, Op, and Color Field—offering both a curated snapshot of artistic innovation and an accessible format that expanded the audience for contemporary art. Today, X + X is widely regarded as a landmark in American printmaking, celebrated for its curatorial vision, technical accomplishment, and its role in defining the dialogue between museum patronage and the burgeoning print culture of the 1960s.
About the Artist:
George Earl Ortman (1926–2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose rigorously structured geometric abstractions positioned him as a pivotal bridge between Abstract Expressionism, Constructivism, and the rise of Minimalism, celebrated for transforming philosophical, mathematical, literary, and symbolic ideas into visually striking architectonic compositions defined by precision, depth, and a powerful metaphysical charge; drawing on the revolutionary breakthroughs of Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, Ortman synthesized the conceptual daring of the European avant-garde with a uniquely American formal austerity, developing a visual language of relief surfaces, symbolic shapes, grids, cross-forms, and carefully calibrated spatial tensions that gave his work both intellectual rigor and visceral impact; emerging within the same New York artistic circles as Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, he became a major influence on subsequent generations of Minimalist and Conceptual artists—including Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Robert Mangold, Mel Bochner, Richard Tuttle, and younger systems-based practitioners—who recognized in Ortman’s constructions a crucial precedent for uniting strict formal logic with metaphysical inquiry; his artworks have been acquired and exhibited by major museums and institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, and numerous university and corporate collections, affirming his status as a foundational figure in postwar geometric abstraction whose work remains essential to understanding the evolution of American modernism; and his growing global market recognition is underscored by his highest auction result to date, achieved on May 15, 2019, when Untitled (1959) realized 37,500 USD at Sothebys New York, reflecting a continuing and expanding appreciation for his groundbreaking contributions to twentieth-century art.
George Ortman silkscreen, Ortman X + X, Ten Works by Ten Painters, Wadsworth Atheneum portfolio, 1964 American modernism, Mohawk Superfine Bristol, Sirocco Screenprints, Ortman geometric abstraction, Ortman relief aesthetic, Ortman collectible graphic work.
