LYNTON R. KISTLER 1897 – 1993

Before June Wayne and the Tamarind Lithograph Workshop, there was a history of lithography developing in Southern California – in Los Angeles, specifically.

William(Will) Kistler… had developed a Letterpress business, printing menus, announcements, placecards, invitations. Son Lynton worked at his father’s shop…and became interested in lithography as a fine printing technique. He encouraged young artists to explore ‘drawing on stone’ – Lithography’.

During World War I [1914-1918], when Lynton was drafted into the U. S. Army and stationed in Europe, he used his ‘leaves’ to search for the mountain in Bavaria – the source of the strata-less limestones that had enabled Alois Senefelder in 1790 to discover the ‘oil vs water’ technique of drawing and printing with those stones ..that he named ‘lithographs’….’stone drawings’. Lynton Kistler shipped new as well as used limestones home for his incipient workshop in Los Angeles, finding a couple being used as ‘anchor blocks’ in the San Francisco bay!

The Lynton R. Kistler Lithography Studio was born upon his return to Los Angeles; he advertised his services and received requests for printing assistance from artists in primarily the ‘west’ – southern California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, etc…. Kistler would ship stones to artists’ requests; the artists drew on the stones and shipped them back to Kistler for an edition. Then the edition would be split between the artist and Kistler; no money changed hands!

I opened my Gallery:Tobey C. Moss Gallery – in 1978, augmented in 1982 by the inventory at Lynton Kistler’s Workshop. I am very pleased to offer a selection of those lithographs by:

Helen Lundeberg, Lorser Feitelson, Clinton Adams, Jack Baker, Herman Kofi Bailey, Dorr Bothwell, Eugene Berman, Jean Charlot, Phil Dike, Peter Grippa, Warren Newcombe, Richard Haines, Boris Kipar, John Kelly, Boris Kipar, Joseph Mugnaini, Pasquale Napolitano, William Pajaud, Jan Stussy, Palmer Schoppe, Millard Sheets, Milford Zornes, June Wayne, Tyrus Wong, Lee Wexler …and more.