May 27, 2026

Caza

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 ’90s.

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

Photos of prints can be viewed on his website. 

Bio from ASDPT

Inducted into the ASDPT, 1982. Michel Caza (1935-2026) is a multiple award-winning leading light in the global screen-printing industry, and one of the ‘founding fathers’ of FESPA in 1962 and has been a Board Member since 1990. Michel established the French ScreenPrinting Association (GPSF) in 1959, was FESPA’s delegate on the board of the American SGIA for many years, and is Past-Chairman of the Academy of Screen & Digital Printing Technology (ASDPT).

Michel first became a screen-printer in 1954, going on to found a series of screen-printing businesses. These culminated in the launch in 1983 of Atelier D’Art Michel Caza, devoted to fine art, posters and postcards, alongside Graficaza SA, specialized in high quality general screen-printing for advertising, POP, industrial and decorative applications.

The two businesses were integrated under the Graficaza brand in 1996 and grew in size and turnover until the business was sold by Michel and his wife Therese in 2004. As a pioneer of fine art screen-printing, Michel has collaborated with many world-famous 20th Century artists, including Dali, Lichtenstein, Matisse, Miro and Warhol, as well as numerous illustrators, studios and comic designers.

Michel’s workshops have been used as an ‘open door’ training school for foreign printers wanting to develop their technical knowledge, and he has personally initiated and developed significant innovations in screening, inks, substrates and digital prepress for screen-printing, as well as undertaking substantial research into the use of screen and digital printing in industrial applications. Michel now works as an expert consultant for a global client base of printers and equipment manufacturers.

He has edited and contributed to dozens of trade publications worldwide and has authored and contributed to numerous technical books and CDs, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. He has presented technical seminars in more than 50 cities around the world.