Stamp Act

The usually traditional U.S. Post Office Department last week recognized the existence of contemporary art. To Uruguayan-born Artist Antonio Frasconi. 44. went the department's $500 prize for his winning entry in a contest to pick a stamp to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences. Other nations prize art on stamps; Mexico has for decades used striking and sometimes beautiful work. But only with Postmaster General J. Edward Day has the U.S. strayed so radically from the more usual practice of using the department's own generally competent, occasionally torpid designers; in 1961 the department reproduced a painting by Frederic Remington and in 1962 one by Winslow Homer. National Gallery Director John Walker persuaded Day to try a live artist this year, got Art News magazine to give $500 to each of the contestants chosen to enter. The five artists--Buck-minster Fuller. Herbert Bayer. Josef Albers. Bradbury Thompson and Frasconi --were brought to the capital for a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to learn the limitations of the department's presses. They submitted a total of 14 entries, all designs intended to put the abstract theme of science in accurate and artistic context. To Winner Frasconi, chosen by a three-man committee after four hours of deliberation, goes not only an additional $500 but also the distinction of seeing his work reprinted 120 million times next fall; for a man best known as a printmaker, with editions limited to 40 or 50, this may be a unique ordeal.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.