prettymaps (chicago) by Aaron Straup Cope

Whoa-we're-barreling-towards-the-holidays-mighty-quick greetings, collectors! Bringing us even closer, faster, is this abbreviated week—we're T-minus a coupla days away from the first bout of harrowing holiday travel and the boarding of planes, trains and automobiles to celebrate T-giving with friends and family afar. In honor of wherever you might be bound, we're unleashing another set of prettymaps from Aaron Straup Cope and Stamen Design, covering the territories that sprawl from cities across the U.S. of A: dc/baltimore, boston, dallas/fort worth and chicago.

Hot on the heels of the MoMA exhibition Talk to Me, which featured prettymaps earlier this year, these fair four also follow up the already released editions of nyc, la, sfba and paris prints. MoMA featured Manhattan* along with Beijing and Tokyo, but we're staying closer to the homefront—for now! More international destinations coming soon—favoring the places we know a little more intimately. (Though, that's up for debate; I'll be the first to admit that Dallas/Ft. Worth is as foreign to me as the far reaches of the Faroes.)

Dizzying and data-licious, Aaron's maps are the product of enormous amount of freely available info streamed from sources around the web. The nitty-gritty details of just how they were created can be found on the prettymaps site, and among the plethora of blogs that hopped on the story as soon as the maps came out. Though Open Source Maps is indeed a source for these, they're not made for navigating. But, they sure are nice to look at. Among the pinks, yellows and oranges, orienting yourself in the cities you do know is an immersive, instantaneous pleasure. In the ones that you don't know, the palette keeps the secrets of those unknown territories. But fear not, if you're ever lost, home is always where the he(art) is.

— Sara

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*MoMA also cleverly charts how all the works featured in the exhibition connect to one another, but one thing they didn't link was all the 20x200 artists included in the show: namely Stefanie Posavec and Matt Jones. We're mighty proud of all three.

Good morning, collectors! Hope this finds you well this fine Saturday. Reporting sunny skies from NYC as I slip a little art in your inbox from one of photography's most influential heroes: Mr. Eadweard Muybridge. Animal Locomotion; Plate 187, Dancing (Fancy) is our second vintage print, a fitting follow-up to the entirely sold-out Animal Locomotion; Plate 197 (Couple Dancing).

Dancing (Fancy) appears in museum collections around the world, accompanying notes about Mr. Muybridge's considerable contributions to both art and science as well as juicy bits from his made-for-the-movies life. An eccentric fellow born as Edward James Muggeridge, he changed his name several times, finally settling on a spelling to match that of King Edward as shown on the plinth of the Kingston coronation stone. Long a resident of San Francisco, he also lived in Central America, leaving the U.S. after standing trial for killing his wife's lover. Ignoring his plea of insanity, a jury of married men acquitted him, calling his actions entirely justifiable. The sensational saga spawned the great Philip Glass's 1982 opera The Photographer.

While old tales surround Muybridge and his famous works, new ones abound. Of the sweetest is James Danziger's seeking, finding, losing and re-finding Couple Dancing, but the story we're most excited about marks an important chapter in 20x200 history: the initiation of our artist fund. Jen introduced it here, writing:

Supporting contemporary artists in their practices is, and will always be, core to 20x200's mission. The introduction of vintage editions today is a key component to furthering and expanding upon that mission... you can purchase this print today knowing that a substantial portion of its proceeds will be funneled into 20x200's newly formed Artists' Fund.

With the spinning miss in Dancing (Fancy) we're taking another step forward in establishing the artist fund. Big thanks to the Trustees of the Boston Public Library, Rare Books Department for contributing to this epic tale that's only just beginning.

— Sara

Sans Titre 21 by Christian Chaize

It's-almost-the-weekend greetings, collectors! Today I write with news of new editions from one of 20x200's most beloved artists, the charming and talented Christian Chaize. What makes this announcement especially special is that Apres Grande 7 and Sans Titre 21 are our first editions from two of Christian's new bodies of work. Drifting away from his much-adored images in Praia Piquinia, Apres Grande 7, from Christian's evolving Praia Grande series, carries us into the territory explored in Paradis, including Sans Titre 21.

In both works, we find ourselves looking at the prosaic details of seascapes—water, sky and sand—from a different, increasingly distant perspective. Christian describes the Portugese beach featured in Praia Piquinia—the first series of his we presented here and at the gallery—as being "as familiar to me now as a family member." With Paradis, created farther south, in the Seychelles, Christian finds himself in his element, along the shore, but not quite at home. In this familiar-yet-foreign setting, it's the characteristics of the place that he hones in on, rather than its people and their attendant things.

The resulting images are more subtle—sculptural, abstract and meditative; assembled elegantly within a squared frame—than the exuberant finery of the Piquinia vacationers' umbrellas. The beauty in Paradis emerges from a more nuanced palette comprising the curves of tide-worn boulders and the hearty plant life that takes hold amongst their crevices. As I wrote in the press release for the exhibition of this work that's currently on view at Jen Bekman Gallery, "here Chaize uses the lens to contemplate the beach in a more private and reverent manner. Paradis demonstrates his ability to shift subjects and tonal ranges and still manage to coax out details of the beach others might overlook."

We'll also have work from both this and his beloved Praia Piquinia series at the upcoming Pulse Art Fair in Miami. You'll find us in Booth E101, where Christian's photographs will be hanging alongside new work by Carrie Marill, Sarah McKenzie and Michelle Muldrow. As you might have surmised, there's much to feast your eyes upon 'round these parts right now and, yes!, there's more to come. In fact, it just so happens that today's photographs are two of the three new editions we'll be presenting by Christian before year's end. What ever will that last edition be? You'll just have to keep an eye on your inbox to find out.

— Jen

Please note: Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists' originals. The 11"x11" and 20"x20" prints have a border of 0.5 inches to allow for framing. The 35"x35" prints have a border of 3 inches, and the 50"x50" prints have a border of 4 inches, per the artist's specifications.