From Printer’s Ink to the Artist’s Press

Albert “Al” Kaufman (1928–2005) was an American printmaker and painter whose distinctive intaglio etchings transformed familiar landscapes into richly textured, almost dreamlike worlds. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kaufman was largely self-taught and developed an interest in drawing and graphic art while still a teenager. Printing was already part of his world: his father, Louis B. Kaufman, worked professionally as a printer.

Kaufman did not follow the conventional path of the formally trained studio artist. According to family accounts, his professional art career emerged after he lost his job to increasing industrial automation. He began painting at home, where his wife recognized something he apparently had not yet fully embraced herself. She took a group of his paintings to a gallery in Nyack, New York, without his knowledge. The resulting exhibition reportedly sold much of the work and helped turn an unexpected period of unemployment into a new career.

Kaufman subsequently concentrated on intaglio printmaking, working from home studios in Tallman and later New City in Rockland County, New York. Using a vintage hand press, he produced limited-edition etchings characterized by extremely fine line work, pronounced texture, atmospheric landscapes and an unusual combination of graphic precision and fantasy. He was closely involved with the entire process, including printing, matting and framing his own work.

Trees, water, distant mountains, architecture and dramatic skies recur throughout Kaufman’s imagery. Rather than simply recording a landscape, his compositions often reorganize nature into carefully constructed scenes in which line, shadow and texture become as important as the subject itself. Works such as Parco-Vista demonstrate this approach particularly well, combining intricate natural detail with strong geometry and an almost surreal atmosphere.

Family testimony also connects Kaufman with work performed as an outside vendor on Disney’s The Jungle Book. The claim comes from his daughter, Heather Kaufman, rather than surviving studio credits, so it is best regarded as part of the artist’s documented family history rather than a formally verified Disney credit.

Kaufman died in New City, New York, in 2005 at the age of 77. His surviving body of work provides the more lasting biography: the work of a largely self-taught craftsman who came to professional art relatively unconventionally and developed a visual language unmistakably suited to the printing press.