PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has announced the establishment of the Brand X Editions Archive with a gift from Robert Blanton and Brand X Editions, the globally recognized New York-based print studio and publisher founded by master printer Blanton. The gift currently includes more than 350 screenprints by Mickalene Thomas, Rashid Johnson, Joel Mesler, Adam Pendleton, Alex Katz, Chuck Close, Jenny Holzer, Emily Mae Smith, Tschabalala Self, and many others. The Archive will expand over the years to include new works produced by the studio.

To celebrate the gift, the PMA will host a Brand X Editions retrospective exhibition in 2025 and publish a richly illustrated catalogue providing a history of the studio and a broad overview of the Archive. The Archive and related documentation will be available for consultation in the PMA’s Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and an associated database of the works will be accessible for online research and study.

“We are grateful to receive this gift from BXE and Robert Blanton,” said Sasha Suda, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the PMA. “This gesture is both a coup and an honor for the PMA in light of Brand X Editions’ tremendous impact on contemporary screenprinting. We are proud to give these important works a permanent home.”

“Robert Blanton and his team of chromists and master printers at Brand X have been at the cutting edge of the screenprint medium for over four decades. They have pushed the traditional screenprint into areas of artistic expression that make it a vital medium for 21st Century artists” said Louis Marchesano, the Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “The addition of the Brand X Editions Archive to the collection of the PMA goes a long way toward building an authoritative resource on screenprinting and we’re more than delighted to provide a home where these works can be studied and exhibited for generations to come. Because Brand X has not only published prints, but also produced prints for other publishers, the texture and details of their technical and artistic accomplishments haven't been fully understood until now.”

The history of the PMA’s Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs is closely connected to the history of the screenprint (or silkscreen) medium and boasts one of the foremost collections of early screenprinting from the 1930s and ’40s. The first head of the department, Carl Zigrosser, who was hired in 1940, championed the medium and was closely associated with influential pioneers, including Guy Macoy who produced what are believed to be the first artistic screenprints in the history of art.

Says studio founder Robert Blanton, “Brand X has been very fortunate to work with many of the most talented and respected artists for nearly half a century. During that time, our team of unequalled printmakers has constantly sought to practice the traditional art of screenprinting at its highest level, while expanding the possibilities of what a screenprint can be. I am proud of the work we do, and with the establishment of the Brand X Editions Archive at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we will be working with the PMA to help broaden the knowledge of this beautiful and nuanced medium.”