These Italian screenprints came to us from Laurie Burns, daughter of typographic giant Aaron Burns. Aaron Burns and his wife Florence purchased this portfolio of prints in 1967 from Galleria del Deposito in Genoa, Italy. The Burnses mounted an exhibition of the work at the gallery of TypoGraphics Communications, where Aaron Burns was creative director. Shortly thereafter, Burns co-founded the International Typeface Corporation with Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler.

Galleria del Deposito was an artists collective founded in 1963 by Eugenio Carmi, Carlo Fedeli, and other artists and writers. Its mission was to make high quality affordable art made in multiples (usually prints, small scale sculptures, ceramics, and scarves) available to both local and international consumers; the work was marketed through a monthly bulletin that was printed in both Italian and English. To see more work from Galleria del Deposito, take a look at this exhibition that was held at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, December 11, 2011 – February 7, 2012.

The portfolio in our archive, printed by Brano Horvat and issued in 1967, contains five signed and numbered prints each from Enrico Baj, Eugenio Carmi, Lucio Del Pezzo, Piero Dorazio, and Achille Perilli. Here’s a sample from each artist: