Artist Trading Cards: A Brief History
History: Miniature art has a long history.
Small art cards were all the rage in the 16th century. Most were portraits &
were sold, not traded or given away. They were the first wallet
"photos." Men would have nudes painted of their mistresses on art
cards (probably without their wives knowing), usually by the same artist who
created the larger family portraits of their wives & children.
In
the 1700's, the French artists were the first to come up with the idea of
advertisements on the backs of the art cards. During the Impressionist Age
(1850-1860), artists traded cards among themselves to study each other's style
& techniques. They also traded or sold the art cards as necessary for
supplies, food, & lodging.
In
1887, "baseball" cards started to appear. These early cards are now
very rare, & it is uncertain what they were made of. They were not mass
produced until the golden years of baseball (1902 - 1935). Cards produced
during this time were usually sold with bubble gum, chewing tobacco,
cigarettes, baking soda, and cracker jacks.
During
World War II, a shortage of paper curtailed the production of advertising
trading cards. After the war, several companies produced baseball and
non-baseball trading cards between 1950 and 1990, most notably the Topps
Chewing Gum Company & DC comics, not to mention the ubiquitous Pokémon
merchandising that began in the mid 90’s (a brain child of the infamous
Japanese firm, Nintendo).
During
a recent trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2012), I saw a quilt
made of “silkies.” From the text on the wall by the display, I learned:
“In the late 19th century, tobacco companies developed the cigarette trading card—a premium inserted into packs to entice customers to collect a complete series. Employing new color lithography, the vibrant cards featured popular content, & American Indian themes were common. By the early 20th Century, companies seeking to broaden their consumer bases pursued the as yet untapped female market with ‘silkies.’ Silkies were collectibles printed on silk bearing motifs identical to their paper predecessors.”
“In the late 19th century, tobacco companies developed the cigarette trading card—a premium inserted into packs to entice customers to collect a complete series. Employing new color lithography, the vibrant cards featured popular content, & American Indian themes were common. By the early 20th Century, companies seeking to broaden their consumer bases pursued the as yet untapped female market with ‘silkies.’ Silkies were collectibles printed on silk bearing motifs identical to their paper predecessors.”
On
display was a “silkie” issued by the British American Tobacco Company, c.1930,
which was a reissue of one of Alan & Ginter’s s early trading cards,
“Celebrated American Indian Chiefs, 1888.”
From a web site sportscardradio.com, I also learned: “John Allen and
Major Ginter were the founders of Allen & Ginter, a tobacco manufacturing
company. In 1875, they started the first tobacco trading cards. These early
cards featured Baseball players, Indian Chiefs, & Boxers. Later sets would
have famous actresses and movies stars. Other sports were also represented,
specifically Cricket & Football. John Allen & Major Ginter created over
80 sets of Allen & Ginter Baseball Cards during 1885-1890. The 1888 Allen
& Ginter Set features baseball player Joseph Mulvey. Mulvey, a third
baseman, played 12 seasons in the MLB. A vintage Mulvey now sells for over
$1000.”
A
Personal Note: When my
mother left home to go to the University of Colorado in 1935, Grandmother gave
away Mom’s treasured collection of early baseball cards because she thought Mom
had "outgrown them." Needless to say, Mom was devastated. I would
imagine the collection, had it remained in the family, would be worth a small
fortune today.
Artist
Trading Cards (ATC’s): In the late 20th Century, the artist M. Vänçi
Stirnemann is credited with having the "first" Artist Trading Card
(ATC) exhibition, where he displayed 1,200 cards he had produced at his
INK.art&text bookstore/gallery in Zürich, Switzerland, April 23-May 17,
1997. Stirnemann, on the last day of the show, allowed anyone who created a
hand-made ATC to trade it for any card displayed in the show. In collaboration
with Cat Schick, he has been promoting the idea ever since. In September 1997,
Don Mabie (a.k.a., Chuck Stake) brought the first ATC Session to Calgary,
Canada, at the New Gallery. In the last 10 years, ATC’s sessions spread world
wide, & many trading groups can be found on the web.
Collaborative
/Cultural /Conceptual /Performance Art: ATC's are a conceptual &
performance art form using any medium or technique: collage, rubber stamping,
painting, sewing, drawing, weaving, found images, screen printing,
fine-lettering techniques xerography, photography, metal work, paper folding
(origami), & digital imaging. The ATC's can be originals (one of a kind), a
series (each made separately, but designed to look alike), or short-run
editions (identical, usually printed digitally), but all are, most importantly,
self-produced. If the trading cards are part of a limited series, they are
ordinarily labeled as a series & are numbered (1/10; 2/10; 3/10; etc.)
How
to Make ATC’s: ATC’s are
miniature works of art (2½" by 3½ " or 64 by 89 mm), created on heavy
paper or any stiff backing material (as long as the material is at least as
heavy as card stock but thin enough to insert into a standard plastic trading
card sleeve). Some cards are now being created that "violate" the
thickness requirement. The back of each card usually includes the date, the
artist's signature or chop, & any contact information the artist wants to
give. It is interesting for collectors to know the card's origin: city, state,
& country. Many artists create ATC's with 3-D features: windows, folds,
multiple pages, pop-ups, sliding panels, moving parts, hidden messages, &
secret treasures. These thicker, more
three-dimensional ATC's can be stored in special boxes & containers, rather
than the traditional baseball card display pages.
Everybody
Is an Artist: Anybody can
make ATC's. The idea is that you trade your hand-made cards with other people
who produce cards, either at Trading Sessions or whenever you meet other people
in person to trade. The meeting in person to trade is essential to the concept
of ATC's. It is O.K. to trade by mail or to participate in editions, but the
main purpose of this performance is the trading session and the personal meeting.
I made my first ATC for Winter Solstice, in 2004, and have been creating cards
to trade for the last six years.
Art
Cards: Sell or Trade?
Purists say it is not about the money. Participants in trading sessions should
not be charged any fees: the point of the project is the exchange of cards as
well as the in-person or by mail exchange of ideas. The process of
"trading" is central to the idea of ATC's. Interaction between
artists is integral to the production /performance /exchange aspect of the art,
and, by definition (it's right in the name), ATC's should not be sold. Thus,
size restriction, sometimes thickness, artist contact information, and the
"free" in-person exchange are the only "suggested"
boundaries. Of course, there is now a collector aspect to trading cards, which
is called ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals). Some artists make their
cards available to the public, usually at a very affordable price.
Join
the Fun: The Art-4-Art
Trading Session meets the third Saturday of every month at 1 p.m. in the temporary location of the Lyons Regional Library, 405 Main Street, Lyons, Colorado. Make 9 or 10
cards to trade. Keep one for yourself.
Founder
Art-4-Art Trading Session:
We are indebted to our local librarian, Merlyn Williams, who started our
group in Lyons, Colorado, in 2003.
More
Information: Use your
favorite search engine to find out more about ATC’s. Here is the link to the
artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann’s web page: http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/.
Sources:
Information
compiled from various sources on the Internet including www.Wikipedia.org; and from: Expression Magazine; an art show at the Los
Angeles County Museum in 2012; and the books, Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin; and Artist Trading Cards: An Anthology of ATC's, a Somerset Studio® Publication.
Published as a service to the Lyons Regional Library by:
The
Reenchantment Press
Editor & Publisher:
Phyllis
J. O’Rourke, M.A.
P.O.
Box 892
Lyons,
Colorado 80540
©2016 A More Light Publication
