Why is everone I know at the end of the alphabet? For the snailmailers,
I can be reached at 7455 Vista del Monte Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91405-1950,
telephone & fax @ (818)786-4350.

For the historically minded, I am still teaching in the Art Department
at Los Angeles Valley College although actually contemplating retirement
in 5-1/2 years or less.  Also still doing prints and drawings, although
much less than before.

The last decade and a half have taken me on trajectories unanticipated a
decade earlier.  Divorce and remarriage are just the surface.  My 2nd
wife, now coming up on 11 years of marriage, is Lyn Charlsen, the
director of the Alexander Training Institute in Santa Monica.  Along the
way I abandoned Hank in favor of the original Henry.  Old friends still
call me Hank, but the name recovery was simply symbolic of the
reclaiming of my identity in many other ways.

In the early 80s, I started writing art criticism and began curating
exhibitions, particularly revolving around the connections between art
and politics.  A protracted trip to Europe in 1987 got me particularly
excited about Central and Eastern European Graphic Art.

That impetus set in motion a focus on that region leading to organizing
the first exhibition of Czechoslovak (Now Czech & Slovak) Graphic Art
that openly talked about the political subtexts of the Communist Era
work.  The show opened a year to the day from the Student Demonstration
in Prague on November 17, 1989, that ultimately led to the fall of the
Communist Government (If anyone is interested in the Catalog, I’ll send
it).  The show circulated nationally for the following two years.

Since then, I’ve curated four other exhibitions, two in a commercial
venue, the Koplin Gallery, 464 North Robertson Boulevard, West Los
Angeles.  In July, I’ll do another one there featuring Czech, Russian,
Slovak and Ukrainian artists.

Four the last five years, I have had a burgeoning separate business,
kleinprint, in which I have been directly representing a group of
Belarussian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Slovak and
Ukrainian artists.  They are primarily printmakers, although most do
many other things as well.  One is a photographer.

What started out as an enterprise to help the circle of friends I had
begun to develop, has taken on a life of its own.   It has me traveling
to Europe once or twice each year and all over the country to show the
work.  I’ve abandoned the chairmanship of my department and virtually
all committee work at the College.  There simply is not enough time.
Right hip replacement surgery a month ago has also caused me to reassess
the physicality of the printmaking I have been doing and teaching all
these years.

With all, I’m having a lot of fun, feeling like I’m doing something
worth while and at a very comfortable place in my life.

For those of you who remember my daughters, Mika, now 31, is an
architect here in LA.  Sacha, about to be 29, is married and working on
her Ph.D. at the School for Social Work at UCLA.  Her particular
interest is in public policy.

I can’t complain.

Henry Klein