Biography
I love the smell of ink. Ink, solvent and machine oil - these smells harken back to my childhood when I would accompany my father to his small engraving factory in Minneapolis. His love for engraving and print on paper was instilled in me and now being “in the ink” has become a permanent part of my life.
- Alexandra Eckhardt
Alexandra Black Eckhardt is known as one of America's foremost artists for monogram, lettering, heraldry and engraving design and is well-respected as a fine artist. She has created designs for the Premier of Bermuda, the Princess of Dubai, and she designed the “Radziwill Arms” for the wedding of Philip Radziwill, grandson of Prince Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill and Vogue staffer Devon Schuster Radziwill. Her engraving design work has been commissioned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Saks Fifth Avenue, Shreve, Crump & Low, Cartier New York, Tiffany & Company and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Eckhardt's father, John Black, is a well-known and respected Master Engraver who taught his daughter the fundamentals of engraving and design at a young age. Eckhardt received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from William Smith College in 1981 and landed a position as an engraving designer where she honed her design skills and developed a deep appreciation for letter forms, illuminated manuscripts and the decorative arts.
In 1993, Eckhardt opened her own freelance business, creating and engraving designs - on a drawing table in her kitchen - for high-end clients such as Cartier, Dempsey & Carroll and Shreve, Crump & Low. She later built a post-and-beam studio on her property in Vermont where she could create drawings, do all of her pre-press plate work, and print the final work on her own hand-engraving equipment and etching and relief presses she collected and inherited over the years. The studio gave Eckhardt a very strong sense of place, where her creative spirit could soar and she could expand her personal work while developing her business.
Over the next twelve years, Eckhardt apprenticed and collaborated with accomplished artists and masters. She began a long apprenticeship with her father, John Black, where she learned the lost art of hand engraving as well as photo engraving in copper for the commercial/social engraving industry. Black also worked with Eckhardt on refining her monogram and heraldry designs.
Eckhardt co-founded a print program with Bill Scott at the Vermont Arts Exchange and acquired new techniques from Scott's expertise in letterpress printing. The artist collaborated with Dale Bradley at the Contemporary Artist Center in North Adams, Massachusetts, creating large woodblock unique prints on their own handmade paper, and printed them on the “Bradley” Large Scale Press.
She also explored other mediums in the fine art world, delving into sculpture by studying the fundamentals of stone carving and proportions of form in figurative work with Fred X. Brownstein. She was later invited to assist sculptor Gary Sussman in creating a large sculpture installation for a private commission.
In 1999, Alexandra Eckhardt became completely immersed in the world of large contemporary art as the first hire to assist Richard Criddle, Director of Fabrication and Installation, to literally build Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. Criddle taught Eckhardt steel fabrication, welding, and other metal fabrication techniques. She was the only woman in a team of men building all of the museum galleries and assisting with the artwork installations, including receiving and installing Rauschenberg's The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece, and the installation of a Joseph Beuys for the Grand First Opening of Mass MoCA.
But it was the work she did as a freelance artist for Cartier, New York that led her back into full-time employment in 2007 - as Design Director of Stationery and Papers at Cartier. Captivated by the company's rich history of design, Eckhardt finally found her true home, inspired by the innovation and fantasy in the emblematic design themes that she created for royalty, government leaders and celebrities.
During this time, Eckhardt also attended the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Connecticut to further her education. Here she met her most influential mentor, James Reed, a master printer and founder of Milestone Graphics in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which became a pivotal moment in her artistic career. Through Reed, Eckhardt found her preferred medium: works on paper.
Alexandra Eckhardt continues to explore new themes and evolve in her personal work, while continuing her mentorship with James Reed in stone lithography and intaglio techniques.
Eckhardt's father, John Black, is a well-known and respected Master Engraver who taught his daughter the fundamentals of engraving and design at a young age. Eckhardt received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from William Smith College in 1981 and landed a position as an engraving designer where she honed her design skills and developed a deep appreciation for letter forms, illuminated manuscripts and the decorative arts.
In 1993, Eckhardt opened her own freelance business, creating and engraving designs - on a drawing table in her kitchen - for high-end clients such as Cartier, Dempsey & Carroll and Shreve, Crump & Low. She later built a post-and-beam studio on her property in Vermont where she could create drawings, do all of her pre-press plate work, and print the final work on her own hand-engraving equipment and etching and relief presses she collected and inherited over the years. The studio gave Eckhardt a very strong sense of place, where her creative spirit could soar and she could expand her personal work while developing her business.
Over the next twelve years, Eckhardt apprenticed and collaborated with accomplished artists and masters. She began a long apprenticeship with her father, John Black, where she learned the lost art of hand engraving as well as photo engraving in copper for the commercial/social engraving industry. Black also worked with Eckhardt on refining her monogram and heraldry designs.
Eckhardt co-founded a print program with Bill Scott at the Vermont Arts Exchange and acquired new techniques from Scott's expertise in letterpress printing. The artist collaborated with Dale Bradley at the Contemporary Artist Center in North Adams, Massachusetts, creating large woodblock unique prints on their own handmade paper, and printed them on the “Bradley” Large Scale Press.
She also explored other mediums in the fine art world, delving into sculpture by studying the fundamentals of stone carving and proportions of form in figurative work with Fred X. Brownstein. She was later invited to assist sculptor Gary Sussman in creating a large sculpture installation for a private commission.
In 1999, Alexandra Eckhardt became completely immersed in the world of large contemporary art as the first hire to assist Richard Criddle, Director of Fabrication and Installation, to literally build Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. Criddle taught Eckhardt steel fabrication, welding, and other metal fabrication techniques. She was the only woman in a team of men building all of the museum galleries and assisting with the artwork installations, including receiving and installing Rauschenberg's The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece, and the installation of a Joseph Beuys for the Grand First Opening of Mass MoCA.
But it was the work she did as a freelance artist for Cartier, New York that led her back into full-time employment in 2007 - as Design Director of Stationery and Papers at Cartier. Captivated by the company's rich history of design, Eckhardt finally found her true home, inspired by the innovation and fantasy in the emblematic design themes that she created for royalty, government leaders and celebrities.
During this time, Eckhardt also attended the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Connecticut to further her education. Here she met her most influential mentor, James Reed, a master printer and founder of Milestone Graphics in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which became a pivotal moment in her artistic career. Through Reed, Eckhardt found her preferred medium: works on paper.
Alexandra Eckhardt continues to explore new themes and evolve in her personal work, while continuing her mentorship with James Reed in stone lithography and intaglio techniques.