Five Decades of Friendship

One a rainy winter evening, friends, collaborators, and admirers of Sidney B. Felsen have snaked up Los Angeles’ winding mountain road to the Getty Center to pay their respects to the legendary 99-year-old photographer and revel in his expansive archive in “First Came a Friendship: Sidney B. Felsen and the Artists at Gemini G.E.L.” Inside the museum’s packed foyer, Felsen and his wife Joni Weyl are dressed to the nines in synchronized turquoise ensembles. In a three-piece suit with a white button-down, velvet turquoise blazer, and matching bow-tie, the photographer is surrounded by a large group of well-wishers congratulating him and reminiscing. 

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Founded in 1966, Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) became an institution seemingly overnight. At that time, artists were arriving in LA from New York in droves in search of something new. Print-making was having a revival, too, as artists gained interest in prints and multiples to meet the soaring demand for their works. They came to the print workshop for the opportunities, and they stayed for the community. From the beginning, the energy was loose and free, and experimentation prevailed. Due to the collaborative nature of printmaking—a process which requires multiple hands on deck and one that is at odds with the traditional solitary studio practice—artists and printers found new ways to work together. For the last five decades, Felsen has captured Los Angeles’ trailblazing print workshop and publisher—and the collaborative pulse that runs through it.

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Felsen always carries a camera. At the Getty, the age-old adage that every photograph contains a story rings true and is tinged with a layer of exclusivity—viewers are given a glimpse into the private lives of artists so lionized their names bear a cultural gravitas of their own: Robert Rauschenberg—the first artist to collaborate with the studio—Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Vija Celmins, Ed Ruscha, Cecily Brown, and David Hockney all have developed close ties with Gemini G.E.L., and that’s only scratching the surface of its past. Recent collaborators include Mehretu, Analia Saban, and Tacita Dean. 

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One 1998 photo by Felsen shows Richard Serra at work proofing his "Rounds" series. In the image, Serra leans forward amidst a black-paint splattered room, pouring black pigment into a circle beneath him, seemingly unaware of the camera. Another black-circle-work hangs on the wall behind him, and his arm rests on a third, which appears three-dimensional. Taking photographs is Sidney’s way of watching over us, not watching us,” reads a quote from Serra emblazoned nearby on the gallery wall. In another memorable shot, Roy Lichtenstein’s eye peers out from a mask made from a sheet of his signature red-dots, a print bearing the same pattern pokes out from behind his frame. In an 1984 portrait of Ellsworth Kelly looking in the mirror, the photographer can be seen from behind his camera, caught in the reflection of a second looking glass. Elsewhere, a more recent image of Mehretu captures the new generation of artists making use of Gemini G.E.L.’s facilities; she is captured, headphones on, making a tiny mark amidst a sea of her enigmatic lines for her multi-paneled painting Auguries, 2010. Her words resonate in a nearby gallery text: “...Sidney taught me: how to love, how to enjoy life, how to work hard, and how to live that whole life with a form of grace.”

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Scenes like these reveal a tender and expansive documentation of Gemini G.E.L. and the bonds that have been born in its studios. At the Getty, each image builds upon the next until, at last, a portrait of the photographer himself comes into view as seen through the composites of his life’s work. “Sidney had that eye to pick these people whose careers just transcended to the Stars,” offers Jordan Schnitzer, a philanthropist, art collector, and long-time friend and avid collector of Felsen. “They saw something in him, too.”

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“First Came a Friendship: Sidney B. Felsen and the Artists at Gemini G.E.L.” is on view until July 7, 2024, at the Getty Center at 1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049.