The Newark Public Library celebrates the art of the stencil in two not-to-be-missed, related exhibits.

The first one is, “For Decoration and Agitation: An Exhibition of Stencil and Pochoir Books and Prints.” It’s a wide-ranging 150-piece show that fills the third-floor gallery of the main branch, located at 5 Washington Street.

The second is “B-Boys and Butterflies,” which are works by the well-known Newark visual and performance artist Jerry Gant, who co-curated the show. It continues themes of agitation in a smaller, one man show on the fourth floor. Both shows were curated by Jared Ash of the Special Collections Division.

“For Decorations and Agitation” includes works by 19^th century Japanese fabric artists; famed 20^th century modernists Joan Miro, Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger and Sonia Delaunay; and contemporary artist Shepard Fairey, best known for his iconic stenciled image of Barack Obama.

Art or design can be reproduced in many ways from lithography and etching to computer scans and printing. Here the focus is on stenciled art, especially the dazzling colors first achieved in French ateliers in the 19^th century: pochoir is the French word for stencil. Ash has dug into the library’s vast holdings—it has over 23,000 prints- to illustrate the art form. 

“At its simplest, anyone can take a flat piece of cardboard from a cereal box, make a cutout and apply a single color onto a surface,” Ash said. “Or, a French arts workshop would employ 30 people hand applying multiple colors through as many as 80 stencils to create a single luxuriant work.” 

Color and forms leap from the printed leafs of books, paper and fabric, especially in the abstract designs  from the 1920s to 1980s, as with Emile-Allain Seguy’s rich, 1926 designs based on beetles and butterflies. 

Modern artists were influenced by Japanese art and design, which was often derived from nature or geometry. On view are three, large and intricately-cut Japanese stencils made from mulberry paper treated with persimmon juice drawn from the library’s holding of about 120 examples. 

"Everything not on current display can be seen by appointment,” Ash said. “The library's collection was acquired to allow the public to look at the art directly; to allow a level of intimacy you don’t get in a museum.”

In America, the labor-intensive pochoir process yielded to silk screening where colors could be more economically squeegeed through a screen. Both processes can be seen in Anthony Velonis’ haunting,1985 “Memories of Depression.” Velonis initiated the use of silk screens--which he called screen printing--for 1930s New Deal poster art then shortly became head of the silk screen division of the famed government Works Project Administration’s (WPA) Federal Arts Project from 1935 to 1939. These WPA works often equally addressed both the decorative and political sides of stenciled art. 

In later decades, agitation—or protest art urging action--became more overt and dominant. Text is paired with design, or the text often is the art in the anti-war, anti-military message of the “Combat Paper Project,” an ongoing healing arts project for recent war veterans.

These works are stenciled on paper handmade by the veterans from uniforms worn in battle. Of these, Jon Michael Turner’s, “Untitled [Nothing about death is pleasing"] has an eerie, heart rending beauty.” 

Also in view is a limited edition of Shepard Fairey’s vinyl rotocast figure, “Mr. Spray”—an anthropomorphized can of aerosol spray paint. It’s the kind of spray can used in street art that had its roots in 1980s graffiti art.

“Mr. Spray” serves a good jumping off point to ascend one flight of stairs in the library to view the art of Jerry Gant, nicknamed “Aerosol Blue,” who started out as a street artist.

 His sprayed fabric works hang from a long clothesline which hovers above showcases filled with Gant’s actual stencils. Gant has created a mythology for the inner city: chimeras—half men, half deejay equipment.

The Friends of the Newark Library will hold a reception in the library’s Centennial Hall where Gant will speak and “Bulletproof Ambition: The Art and Courage of Jerry Gant,” a 2010 documentary about the artist, will be shown on Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. Gant and a group of Newark artist will lead a stencil workshop for all ages on Saturday Dec. 17, from 1 to 4 p.m., in the NPL auditorium.

There is no admission for either event. For directions, library hours and more information, see www.npl.org or call (973) 733-7784.