<i>The Morgan Register</i>, Created by Richard Minsky
New York, NY, April 24, 2014— The Morgan Library & Museum has received, as a gift from a Trustee, a major new work by internationally acclaimed American book artist Richard Minsky (b. 1947). Titled The Morgan Register, it is a book of mostly blank paper, with endpapers and several internal pages of photographs by Minsky of The Morgan’s galleries, library, and architectural details.
The book will be kept in the Morgan's Director's office and distinguished guests will be asked to sign it as a record of their visit. Made of archival materials and constructed with traditional craftsmanship, it is expected to last as long as any of the books in the Morgan’s collection, some of which are over 1,000 years old.
"Throughout the year the Morgan Library & Museum receives many special visitors, including artists and writers, government officials, collectors and philanthropists, and corporate leaders," said William M. Griswold, Director of the Museum. "Richard's beautiful, hand-made guest register offers us an elegant and personal way to record these important visits. Its design and craftsmanship are consistent with the Morgan's renowned collection of fine books dating back hundreds of years. The institution is deeply grateful for the gift of this wonderful book.”
About The Morgan Register
Bound in goatskin with the title in gold, the covers feature a stainless steel grid coated in Titanium Nitride that evokes the Morgan’s 2006 Renzo Piano designed facade and atrium. The strong verticals are also present in the windows of the original Charles Follen McKim library building completed one hundred years earlier. Interior photos by Minsky show these related architectural features. The blank pages of the book are Rives paper from France, sewn onto double raised linen cords with Irish linen thread. This method, with the ends of the cords laced into the cover boards, is identical to the binding structure on many ancient books in the Morgan’s collection. Headbands of linen thread were hand sewn on a core of alum-tawed pigskin laminated to goat vellum.
About Richard Minsky
Richard Minsky is widely acclaimed as a pioneering book artist whose work is collected internationally by museums and libraries. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (1996) and the prestigious US/UK Bicentennial Fellowship, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts and The British Council (1978). In 2010 Yale University, the repository of The Richard Minsky Archive, presented an exhibition of fifty years of Minsky's work. He is the Founder of the Center for Book Arts (1974), which has mounted over 200 exhibitions during the past 40 years, and currently offers 100 classes and workshops. Minsky has lectured at many institutions, including Brown University, The London College of Printing, Washington University, and The Wizard Academy. In 2011 George Braziller, Inc. published The Book Art of Richard Minsky. For more information visit www.minsky.com
About The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today, more than a century after its founding in 1906, the Morgan serves as a museum, independent research library, musical venue, architectural landmark, and historic site. In October 2010, the Morgan completed the first-ever restoration of its original McKim building, Pierpont Morgan’s private library, and the core of the institution. In tandem with the 2006 expansion project by architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan now provides visitors unprecedented access to its world-renowned collections of drawings, literary and historical manuscripts, musical scores, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, printed books, and ancient Near Eastern seals and tablets. For more information visit www.themorgan.org.
