Claire Van Vliet (Canadian, b. 1933)
Van Vliet is a painter, printmaker, illustrator, crafter, and typographer. In Self Portrait in a Mirror, the artist looks directly at us from inside the mirror as another framed work continues off the left side of the wall. As a woodcut, it contains an almost timeless quality with its dark lines and her appearance, similar to many woodcuts of the late Middle Ages. Yet, her confident and direct stare bursts into modern life from the mirror and frame itself.
Van Vliet moved to California in 1947, graduated from San Diego State College, and earned her MFA from Claremont Graduate University. In 1955, she founded Janus Press, which focuses on traditional hand-printed books, as well as innovative book formats. Now in Vermont, the press has published approximately 110 projects, some selected as AIGA annual Fifty Best Books and the New York Type Directors Club exhibitions. She was the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, elected an Associate of the National Academy, and received two honorary doctorates.
