The Vestige 
The Vestige is a private art studio and museum quality
1800s stone lithograph print shop and atelier that creates hand-pulled limited
editions.
This website is for
fine art collectors, curators, connoisseurs, and certain friends interested in
stone lithography and prints at approachable prices. We focus on the European and foreign art markets, corporate
curators, and private collectors. If
you are already knowledgeable about Stone Lithography, you will be interested
in the hand-made prints created at The Vestige.
Is there a slide
show? We are not currently displaying
our prints online due to Internet art copyright abuse. Instead, this site is a place for collectors
to interact, possibly requesting a CD exhibit (free upon
approval), or E-mail photos; our delivery
venues are quick.
Artist Edition size is
limited to 30 prints, sometimes fewer.
Some prints are Artist Proof editions only. Most collectors term our prints “Special Limited Editions” since
they number less than 100. They are an
investment in value, representing the highest levels of expected excellence,
even by the most critical review and then much more.
The materials and
methods are traditional. The
lithographs are hand drawn on Bavarian stones and then self printed by the
artist, using vintage antique hand presses.
The papers are the finest quality and archival. All prints are very carefully hand-pulled,
double chopped, and certified in the studio.
Beyond the print
process, the images are original works seriously engaged. The artist is not young and until now has
been secretive and low key (see Mini Biography),
yet he has decades of study and distinguished art accomplishments. His unique approach to art techniques and
his style of touch are uncommon to trends making the prints rightly eligible
for purchase by the finest collectors.
A jacketed, extensive
folio accompanies each print, including pertinent documents very much sought
after by thorough collectors. It is
extremely rare to find a packaged stone print offering that values completeness
of document content, as well as focus on quality in theme and appearance.
Current prices are
very sensible and, at times, can be negotiable. Edition prices are set according to size and complexity. Most print releases range from $100 to $1,000
(U.S.
dollars). Discounts are considered and generally given to early and avid
supporters.
If you would like to
know more about The Vestige, and how you may obtain a showing of available
prints, or photos, please use our contact E-mail. Also, feel free to ask us questions. The Mini-biography provides some insights about the artist.
Links
Answer Sleuth Answer Sleuth questions about Stone
Lithography are invited.
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Contact
Information
E-mail:
Mini Biography
Chet Walker has a renaissance education having studied
various disciplines of art, business, engineering, science, math, social
science, and political science. He has
multiple degrees counting a terminal postgraduate degree. He has also studied fine art at different
colleges and Universities, including the University of Iowa (Mauricio
Lasansky, Virginia Graham era ‘60s).
Walker is not typical of many artists of his time in that
he has sufficient private means for income.
There is no pressure put upon him to exhibit and sell art: he has never
needed to sell art for support. It is
well to note that many artists have fallen away from exhibiting in shows or
they have decided to ostensibly ostracize the art scene in other ways. There were many old masters, as well as
today’s new artists, who turned their backs on the art arena of exhibitions and
shows (i.e. Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Degas, etc.). Like them, Chet has chosen to operate as an emancipated studio
artist.
Walker is a keen draughtsman who ties his evocative
drawing ability to the classical art of stone lithography. He works directly on the stone and, like
Marc Chagall, he thinks of a litho stone as a talisman.
Walker knows he’s fortunate to be accomplishing what Edgar
Degas always wished he could have done, which is to afford to work only in
black and white. Degas needed art
income and the public demanded color, all to Degas’ great dismay (stated in his
personal letters). Still, his black and white drawings and lithographs were closest
to his heart. Degas, as well as,
Francisco Goya, Vincent Van Gogh, and most of the great masters, knew the
chaste taste of the blacks. Van Gogh
termed it being a master of the black chords.
For Chet, color is not the closest synthesis to the artist. Color is poles apart from black and white;
color sometimes gets in the way of a more pure, personal, and intimate
connection with the artist.
Chet’s interest in traditional black and white prints
offers a more cherished quality in his art message, it’s not because color is
not possible. He does hand-enhance
color prints at times, but they are very rare.
Chet Walker’s innovative art focus, current theme, and
imagery may surprise you and be explored by contacting the Vestige at his
E-mail.
The
Vestige, Review
The
Vestige
Chet Walker, M.P.A.
Copyright Ó
2000, All Rights Reserved
Last revised: November 4, 2001