"Pattern and Flow chronicles for the first time the flourishing of American decorated paper arts beginning in the 1960s and extending to the 2000s, with an ongoing legacy today. It is the story of some fifty artists who revived the arts of marbled and paste paper, at first by following instructions in antique manuals and conducting experiments, often with home-made materials and tools. As knowledge and skills were shared across a grass-roots movement, an arts phenomenon grew, with centers for the study of book and paper arts emerging across the United States, and artists developing many styles of decorated paper, unlike any seen before. Applying innovative techniques and artistic imagination, modern American paper artists took traditional art forms in new, expressive directions. Their work has now been preserved by the Paper Legacy Project at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose collection is explored in this volume. Richly illustrated, Pattern and Flow presents its subject in three main sections: a brief overview of American decorated paper before the 1960s; a chronological narrative organized by decade from the 1960s to 2000s, surveying the development of the field, the artists, and their contributions; and a reference section, providing essential biographical and professional information for each artist. Designed to be an immersive experience, Pattern and Flow shares the aesthetic world of American decorated paper arts and illustrates the art forms inherent freedom: some of the designs fascinate with intricate, tessellated patterns; some hypnotize with the flow of their liquid forms and waves.

Some explore subtle, muted tones; some are explosive in their use of brilliant colors. The shapes and colors can allude to the seasons, the sea, geologic formations, and cosmic imaginings, or demonstrate pure abstraction. This variety is a key feature of modern American decorated paper. Drawing on the archival resources of the Paper Legacy Project, Pattern and Flow also describes the community that evolved around American decorated paper arts, documenting the workshops, publications, and international meetings that established the field. Gathered together, the artwork and documents in Pattern and Flow describe not just the work of a group of artists spanning a set range of decades, but a veritable American arts phenomenon that developed from the ground up"--.