The University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute is a world-renowned center for fine art lithography dedicated to training master printers and providing a professional studio for artists. In "Migrations," Tamarind director Marjorie Devon has compiled the work of six Native American artists, each of whom collaborated with professional printers at Tamarind and at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, Oregon, to create prints. These artists were selected because they engage in contemporary art rather than what is traditionally considered "Native American art." Artists Steven Deo (Creek/Euchee), Tom Jones (Ho Chunk), Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisgaa), Ryan Lee Smith (Cherokee), Star Wallowing Bull (Chippewa/Arapaho), and Marie Watt (Seneca) represent a wide spectrum of Native American cultures and experiences.

In addition to the art, essays by Jo Ortel, Lucy Lippard, Kathleen Howe, and Gerald McMaster contribute expert analyses of Native American art. Ortel, an associate professor of art history at Beloit College, defines "Migrations" as it applies to this project. Lippard is an art critic and author whose essay discusses the cultural baggage forced upon the American Indian. As director of the Pomona College Museum of Art and professor of art history, Howe offers an overview of Tamarind Institutes projects with indigenous peoples. A Plains Cree artist, McMasters essay details the history of Crow's Shadow Institute on Oregon's Umatilla Reservation. A traveling exhibition of the art contained here, also entitled "Migrations," will begin in 2007, venues to be announced.

For the past fifty years, Tamarind has breathed life into the once-underappreciated art of lithography. From Josef Albers and Philip Guston in the 1960s, to Ed Ruscha and Kiki Smith in recent decades, contemporary artists have teamed up with professional printmakers at Tamarind to create an archive of exceptional lithographs. In 1960, in an effort to generate interest in lithography and make it accessible to artists, June Wayne founded Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Inc., in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fifty years and many thousands of prints later, it is difficult to imagine what lithography in the United States would be without the influence of the renowned Tamarind. Showcasing the broad aesthetic capabilities of lithography, Tamarind Touchstones demonstrates the diversity of the artists who have embraced lithography and their increased facility and comfort with the medium. Highlighting the ninety lithographs in the exhibition, reproduced in full color, this catalogue also includes glimpses into the recent activities of Tamarind, the psyche of the professional printmaker, and the curatorial perspective that guided the selection for this National Endowment for the Arts--funded traveling exhibition. With its trademark passion, Tamarind enters the next fifty years committed to its original goals to invigorate and fortify lithography and to expand its reach throughout the world.