Michel Caza has passed. He is one of the true giants in the world of screen printing, arguably the greatest figure in the history of screen printing.. He helped to start FESPA and was the president for many years, including when I had the distinct pleasure to meet him in the late 90’s.

The legacy of Michel Caza is not only his extensive body of work but also that he had the deepest appreciation for both screen printing as art and screen printing as an exact and essential manufacturing process. Michel Caza  (born Cazaumayou) was born on August 2, 1935 in Lyon, France and always said he was enchanted with screen printing from the age of 19.

Here is a list of collaborations I could quickly assemble from the reported over 750 artists he worked with:

• Ronald Abram
• Yaacov Agam — Israeli kinetic/optical artist
• César Baldaccini — French sculptor known simply as “César”
• Alexander Calder — American sculptor/mobile artist
• Marc Chagall — Russian-French modernist painter
• Gérard le Cloarec — French artist
• Salvador Dalí — collaborated on Alchemy of the Philosophers (1973), printed on lambskin
• Sonia Delaunay — Ukrainian-French abstract pioneer
• Leonor Fini — worked with Caza on more than 120 original prints over 15 years
• Ernst Fuchs — collaborated on the Original Kabbalah portfolio (1975), using Caza’s raised brushstroke technique
• Gérard Fromanger — collaborated on a 1968 portfolio featuring a controversial “bleeding flag” after the Paris student uprisings
• Roy Lichtenstein — Pop Art icon
• Joan Miró — Spanish surrealist
• Richard Mortensen — Danish abstract painter
• Taro Okamoto — Japanese avant-garde artist
• Dan Reisinger — Scrolls of Fire (1979), a 53-print series confirmed by Duke University Library archives
• Guy de Rougemont — French artist
• Niki de Saint Phalle — French-American sculptor/painter
• Pierre Soulages — French abstract painter, close personal friend of Caza
• Kumi Sugai — Japanese-French painter
• Victor Vasarely — founder of Op Art; Caza completed eight prints with him
• Jean-Claude Flock — 1983 double tribute print to Hergé and Warhol (Warhol later countersigned it)
• Peter Fromme-Douglas (Canadian) — Movie-Stars series
• Alain Margotton — 2003 nude that won “Best in Show” at the SGIA awards
• André François — French illustrator; described by Caza as a dear friend
• Alberto Bali — described by Caza as a close friend with a 20-year relationship
• Fabienne Verdier — ongoing collaboration extending into Caza’s post-retirement years

Other photos of prints gathered from his website. 

This is a sad day in our world of screen prints, I hope many tributes roll out.