Printmaking Chapter 11
Prints are usually made in multiples. A print is an image or design oriented from an engraved plate, wooden block or similar surface. Printmaking is rooted in the era of mass production and distribution. It allows contemporary artists to investigate the meaning of mechanically reproduced imagery. Prints are accessible to a wider audience than paintings- they are far less expensive. There are five basic processes of printmaking- relief, intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, and monotype.
Print Terminology Impression: an image that has been transferred through pressure onto paper from a matrix. Matrix: The surface upon which the design for the image has been created (typically a piece of wood, copper, or stone). A single matrix can be used to make many virtually identical impressions. Edition: The multiple impressions, made on paper from the same matrix. Editions are typically numbered. A lower-numbered edition is considered more valuable than a higher-numbered edition, because there are less available. The image to the right is an example of a numbered edition. Proof: A trial impression made before the final edition is run, for personal use by the artist. The matrix is destroyed after the edition is printed to protect collectors against misrepresentation about the number of prints in an edition.
History and Early Uses The medium of printmaking originated in China in the 9 th century CE, with the publication of the world s earliest known printed book, the Diamond Sutra, an important Buddhist text. Though only a single copy survives, the image was intended for distribution: an inscription at the end of the scroll reads made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13 th of the 4 th moon of the 9 th year of Xiantong. The print had a vital role in the mass distribution of ideas, especially the popularization of iconographic and stylistic traditions, the conventions of a shared culture. Right: Detail of Diamond Sutra
The Print Press and Johannes Gutenberg Sometime between 1435-1455, the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg discovered a process for casting letterforms, which could be arranged into pages of type and printed on a wooden standing press using oil-based ink. This was the first print press, and allowed for information be spread much more quickly. Gutenberg published the book Forty-Two-Line Bible in 1455. A page is shown on the right. Typesetters took an entire day to lay out one page of text. An artist added the colorful design on the margins by hand. 100 years after this book was published, about 1 million copies of the Bible had been published in Europe.
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium, thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process.
Relief Processes In a relief print, the image to be printed is raised off the background in reverse. Negative areas are cut away. A common example is a rubber stamp. Woodcut: The design is carved into a wood block. Areas carved away will show the white of the paper. Areas left behind will print the image onto the paper. Woodcuts have a high contrast, and dramatic emotional effects. Wood Engraving: A white line technique in which narrow grooves are cut into the wood and do not hold ink, leaving thin white lines on the paper. The grainy end of wood is used, because it can be cut in any direction without splintering. Linocut: Similar to a woodcut, but the block is made of linoleum instead of wood. Softer to cut but wears down more quickly under pressure. Editions are often smaller.
Woodcuts Erich Heckel (German Expressioni sm) Man on a Plain (Mann en der Eben) 1917, edition of 40 Kitagawa Utamaro, Shaving a Boy s Head, 1795, Japan Color woodblock print, 15 1/8 by 10 ¼ This is an example of a ukiyo-e print, or picture of the transient world of everyday life.
Elizabeth Catlett, Sharecropper, 1952, printed 1970. Color linocut on cream Japanese paper. Image size 17 ¾ by 17 Catlett was an African-American artist who dedicated her life to create art that promoted social change. This linocut was made from three separate blocks, printed in black, dark green, and burnt sienna. In this work, she aimed to show determined strength and a will to endure.
Intaglio Processes Areas to be printed are below the surface of the plate. Intaglio is the Italian word for engraving. Lines cut into the matrix (usually copper) are filled with ink, and the surface is wiped clean. Damp paper is pressed into the plate with a powerful roller, essentially pushed into the plate, picking up the ink. Intaglio is closest to drawing, because it relies on line through hatching, cross hatching, and stippling. Engraving- uses a metal rod called a burin Etching- more fluid; matrix is coated with a ground, which is drawn into, and set into an acid bath Drypoint- a burr creates soft lines; editions are small because the burr wears off quickly Mezzotint and Aquatint- Rely on more tonal areas of light and dark, rather than line.
Left: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Angel Appearing to the Sheperds, 1634, etching, 10 ¼ by 8 ½
Mary Cassatt, The Map (The Lesson), 1890, drypoint, 6 3/16 by 9 3/16 Note the softness of the lines. JMW Turner, Ship in a Storm, engraved by the artist, 1826, mezzotint, 7 ½ by 9 7/8 Note the use of washes rather than line.
Lithography Lithography literally means stone writing. The printing is done on a flat limestone surface, and the method depends on the fact that oil and water don t mix. Images are drawn onto the stone with a greasy crayon, or a liquid called tusche, which produce a wide range of marks. Gum Arabic and acid are used in the printing process. After the edition is printed, the image is ground away from the stone, which gets very slightly thinner after each edition that it prints.
Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1834, lithograph, 11 ½ by 17 3/8 Daumier used lithography to depict current events. He was employed by the French press as an illustrator and political caricaturist. This print is direct reportage of the outrages committed by government troops, who killed everyone in a building, including the family depicted here.
Silkscreen More formally known as serigraphs, from the Greek graphos, to write, and the Latin seri, silk. No expensive, heavy machinery needed- the most DIY of the printing processes The process is essentially stenciling, cutting a shape out of a piece of material and reproducing that shape by spreading ink over the cutout Newest form of printmaking, though similar techniques were used in China and Japan as early as 550 CE Until the 1960s, serigraphy was primarily used in commercial printing, especially advertising
Roger Shimomura, Enter the Rice Cooker, 1994, color screenprint on paper, 36 by 41, edition of 170 This print addresses the artist s tension between two cultures- the American culture in which he was raised, and the Japanese culture that is his heritage. The woman behind the screen is a 1950s American woman in an evening glove applying lipstick, and in front is a samurai warrior holding a modern electric rice cooker.
Monotypes A monotype is a unique image- once printed, it can never be printed again. It is considered a type of printmaking because it uses a plate and a press in the making of the image. Closely related to painting The artist forms an image on a plate with ink or paints, and transfers it to paper under pressure (usually from a printing press) The process requires lots of planning, as the layers of ink or paint reverse. The top layer of applied paint will print as the background, rather than the foreground. What is seen on the plate is different than what will be seen on the paper after printing.
Various monotypes. Note the expressive, painterly marks.