Cone Editions Press was founded by Jon Cone in 1980 in Stamford, CT
as a collaborative printmaking studio. Moving to Portchester, NY within
its first year, the studio was known for its early innovative techniques
in screenprinting. Cone manufactured silkscreen drawing materials
as well as resists exclusively for its studio which gave its early editions
unique and autographic looks. By 1982 the studio began featuring intaglio
and woodcut and monoprint. Publishing its first editions in 1983 to offset
the contract printing and permit more experimental process, Cone began
inviting artists of the Second Generation of the New York School including
Norman Bluhm, Lester Johnson and Wolf Kahn. Cone was one of the early
re-innovators of the Photogravure process utiliing the concept of the
"hand-drawn" and "hand-painted" acetate, rather than a straight photo-positive.
In 1988, Cone Editions Gallery opened at the prestigious 560 Broadway
address in SoHo, NYC where the editions produced at the studio were distributed
to the public. One of the most startling exhibitions at this location
was the monumental Archie Rand potato prints project. The gallery
however opened with the Norman Bluhm/John Yau Poem
Prints. Within months New York City viewed its first digital print
exhibition, The Proof.
1984 however, marks the introduction of the computer in the studio at Cone Editions and the beginning of digital collaborations with artists. Cone became proficient in programming to create many unique projects. In 1989, Cone relocated to rural Vermont to dedicate himself to a digital existence in the Alvin Toffler "Third Wave" vein. By 1990, a new studio was built to house the growing array of computers and scanners. In 1992, Cone began pioneering fine art printmaking with the IRIS 3047 printers. By 1993, Cone was a Development and Marketing Partner of IRIS Graphics and responsible for setting up the first wave of fine art digital printing studios in the USA, including MuseX, David Adamson, Robert Rauschenberg, The Cook Editions, and more than 40 others. Responsible for both inks and software, Cone took the IRIS process into unique directions including the first available system of quad black inks and media profiles called DigitalPlatinum for IRIS.
Five pivotal exhibitions in 1997/1998 launched inkjet printing into the public's eye as a valid photographic medium. David Humphrey's suite of digital inkjet prints utilizing large format scanning played an important role in "(re) Mediation: The Digital in Contemporary American Printmaking" which was the United States winning entry in the prestigious 6th annual Biennial of Graphic Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Washington D.C.'s The Corcoran Gallery of Art launched the Gordon Parks Retrospective, "Half Past Autumn" in 1998, and which is still touring the nation. The color prints were produced at Cone Editions Press with the IRIS Giclée process. Diana Michener's extraordinary "Solitaire" exhibition at Pace MacGill Gallery in 1997 was produced with a one-off IRIS DigitalPlatinum monochromatic process on thin sheets of Japanese hand made Washi paper. Richard Avedon's "In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort", a fashion portfolio photographed and created for The New Yorker, November 6, 1995 issue was painstakingly reproduced as a limited edition IRIS portfolio in 1997 & 1998 from the original transparencies. The Painted Photograph at the Real Gallery in NYC highlighted several photographic hybrid process from Cone Editions. Bill Jones, editor of ArtByte Magazine wrote the catalogue essay reproduced here.
In 1999, Cone began the transition from the expensive IRIS process to the inexpensive EPSON printers. Experimenting with both monochromatic inks as well as the hybrid use of an ICC profile to neutralize color inks, Cone would eventually win the first DIMA award for a monochromatic print process with his innovative PiezographyBW ICC product, besting many others in the competition. Thousands of photographers use Piezography products worldwide. A timeline of Piezography products can be seen by clicking here.
Cone Editions has also been involved in education since the early 1990s when it began teaching small workshops in Photogravure, Monoprint, Carborundum etching, and Relief Print. In 1993, Cone began professional digital printmaking teaching on site and in 1999 began offering workshops for attendees at the studio of Cone Editions Press. Today these workshops are still popular.
Recently we were honored to have an enormous project accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. It is similar in size and scope to the original Audubon books based on wildlife. This series however is about the rare floral species, photographed by Jonathan Singer. The 5 volumes are double-elephant in size and feature 500 sheets.
Jon Cone is also involved in printmaking at an unprecedented scale for photographer Gregory Colbert. These enormous prints feature a completely esoteric ink set and process developed on an exclusive basis to produce photographs up to eight feet high by 16 feet in length on enormous sheets of hand-made papers. The work has been shown in NYC, LA, Tokyo, Mexico City, and will soon open in Brazil.