Retrospective of genre-defining printmaker, inventor, and longtime University of Iowa Art and Art History professor Virgina A. Myer  runs through September at the Levitt Gallery.

By Tessa Solomon  |  tessa-solomon@uiowa

In the University of Iowa’s Levitt Gallery, a spotlight shines on Virginia A. Myer’s five-panel foil print A Codex for Our Times. The late professor’s final masterwork is eye-catching even from the entrance; its metallic details dance in the light.

Flanking her panels on either of the gallery’s adjacent walls is a stylistically eclectic collection of foil prints by her students and colleagues, each rendered with the technique she pioneered in the 1960s. Though the School of Art and Art History may still mourn her Dec. 7, 2015, passing, Monday’s opening of the Virginia A. Myers Memorial Exhibition affirms the power and presence of her legacy.

The exhibition is open through Sept. 2 and is accessible during Art Building West’s operating hours. In that time, community members are invited to examine the legacy of a beloved professor and groundbreaking printmaking artist.

“[Myers] was a very inspired colleague, someone who was fully committed to her art and to her new ways to thinking about printmaking,” said John Beldon Scott, the director of the UI School of Art  and Art History. “She developed foil imaging and printmaking as a fine-art form in a way that it had never been developed before.”

Scott had worked with Myers since the mid-80s, but even now the admiration for her innovation is distinct during conversation with him. Myers arrived in Iowa City in 1955 to study printmaking with the iconic printmaker Mauricio Lasansky. Her arrival was described as “unannounced,” but she earned the respect of Lasansky, who invited her to join the UI staff in the mid-60s.

“She had a way of capturing the audience with stories about how she arrived at the university. It seemed her stories were just as important as the act of making art,” said Serina Sulentic, a contributing artist in the exhibition and a lecturer in the art school. “It makes sense that her personal life was so intertwined with her art.”

Printmaking is a delicate process that consists of transferring ink from a matrix or through a screen onto the artist’s desired material. Myers was fascinated with the holographic properties of magazines and greeting cards, though, and was convinced the effect could be transferred to printmaking. Her experimentation resulted in a new technique: foil imaging. Through her invention of the Iowa Foil Printer, she enabled foil to adhere to prints. Based on pressure, temperature and the amount of adhesive used, prints can either be infused with a brilliant reflection or a subtle shine.

“You give two pieces of opaque red foil to two different artists, and you’ll get two completely different results,” Sulentic said. “The end result will look totally different from one artist to another.”

As a former graphic design graduate student at the UI, foil imaging was a foreign but fascinating medium to Sulentic.

“I would always see students working on foil-image projects and was curious enough to walk over and ask if I could observe [Myers] and her students,” Sulentic said. “She said, ‘Of course, my dear’ and let me even try out the equipment during that session.”

The warm welcome that Sulentic felt when she met Myers didn’t seem to have been an anomaly. “Humble” and “patient” are frequent descriptions offered for Myers, but “generous” is her most consistent attribution.

“When a teacher is that generous and nourishing, students go out and become teachers on their own,” Scott said. “They pass on that same sense of concern of helping out younger artist develop their ideas and skills.”

The exhibition, which places clear emphasis on the medium and on those inspired by it, rather than on Myers herself, is strong support for the artist’s generous spirit. The exhibit was not, in fact, originally intended as a memorial and was instead designed by Myers herself with the intention of showcasing her students’ work.

“It’s typical of Virginia that [the exhibition] was never about her,” Scott said, his tone affectionate.

The 22 pieces are included in her 2006 book, Foil Imaging, The Original Edition Prints. A lap of the gallery presents disparate perspective: rolling landscapes only hinting at their foil composition; stark graphic figures; holographic patterns evocative of Tiffany mosaics.

Former foil-imaging student and exhibition curator Allison Rosh struggled for two hours on the arrangement before returning to Myers’s original layout.

“I just feel this connection with foil, and being able to bring this exhibition to life that she had envisioned was exciting,” Rosh said. “I feel honored to see a little into her mind.”

The exhibition’s central piece, A Codex for Our Times, provides one last, abstract, window into Myer’s life’s work.

“Virginia wouldn’t be someone who would tell you, ‘This means this; that means that,’ but it’s clear there is a narrative that runs across from left to right,” Scott said.

In the five frames, fantastical figures converge on muted backgrounds. A reflection of a lifespan, Myer’s masterwork builds with a frantic energy that resolves with soft lines and tranquil shading. In the final panel, six figures march out of the frame, at peace with their departure.