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A definition of "printmaking" according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"...broadly, the production of images normally on paper and exceptionally on fabric, parchment, plastic or other support by various processes of multiplication; more narrowly, the making and printing of graphic works by hand or under the supervision of the artist."
A definition of "printmaking" according to wikipedia:
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each piece is not a copy but an original since it is not a reproduction of another work of art and is technically known as an impression. Painting or drawing, on the other hand, create a unique original piece of artwork. Prints are created from a single original surface, known technically as a matrix. Common types of matrices include: plates of metal, usually copper or zinc for engraving or etching; stone, used for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts, linoleum for linocuts and fabric plates for screen-printing. But there are many other kinds, discussed below. Works printed from a single plate create an edition, in modern times usually each signed and numbered to form a limited edition. Prints may also be published in book form, as artist's books. A single print could be the product of one or multiple techniques.
Digital prints
Artists using this technique include
Istvan Horkay, Zazie (surrealist)
Digital prints refers to editions of images created with a computer using drawings, other prints, photographs, light pen and tablet, and so on. These images can be printed to a variety of substrates including paper and cloth or plastic canvas. Accurate color reproduction is key to distinguishing high quality from low quality digital prints. Metallics (silvers, golds) are particularly difficult to reproduce accurately because they reflect light back to digital scanners. High quality digital prints typically are reproduced with very high-resolution data files with very high-precision printers. The substrate used has an effect on the final colors and cannot be ignored when selecting a color palette. The term Giclée is sometimes used to describe the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing.
Digital images can be printed on standard desktop-printer paper and then transferred to traditional art papers (Velin Arch or Stonehenge 200gsm, for example). One way to transfer an image is to place the printout face down upon the art paper and rub Wintergreen oil upon the back of the print, and pass it through a press.
Digital prints that are stored and sold electronically are problematic when it comes to authorship of the print and the protection of pecuniary interests. Adobe Systems tried to overcome the digital edition problem with their Adobe Reader application.
Multiple Originals:
A fine art print is a "multiple original." That is to say, usually within the confines of a limited edition, the artist conceives and executes his work specifically in the context of one or another of the serial techniques: etching, woodcut, silk screen, lino cut, digital, etc. Most artists feel that the technique itself adds a new dimension to an original work of art.
Electronic images are truly multiple originals as they rely upon code to produce the image and every copy is actually the writing of code upon a disk or reproduction of code. Prints produced via any other medium are copies and not truly original unless a process of manual editing of the final result or plate is applied.
The Basic Terminology
of Printmaking
Edition:
An edition of a print includes all the impressions published at the same time or as part of the same publishing event. A first edition print is one which was issued with the first published group of impressions. These identical images are pulled either by the artist or, under the artists supervision, by the printer. The body of the edition is numbered (for example, 1/100 through 10/100) directly on the print, usually in pencil. First edition prints are sometimes pre-dated by a proof edition. Editions of a print should be distinguished from states of a print. There can be several states of a print from the same edition, and there can be several editions of a print all with the same state. Additional proofs, such as artist's proofs, are also part of the edition.
Impression:
An impression is a single piece of paper with an image printed on it from a matrix. The term as applied to prints is used in a manner similar to the term "copy" as applied to a book.
Numbering
Numbering indicates the size of the edition and the number of each particular print. Therefore, 25/75 means that the print is the 25th impression from an edition of 75. Beware of numbering which comes in other forms, such as Roman numerals, as this would tend to indicate a restrike.
Limited Edition:
A limited edition print is one in which a limit is placed on the number of impressions pulled in order to create a scarcity of the print. Limited editions are usually numbered and are often signed. Limited editions are a relatively recent development, dating from the late nineteenth century. Earlier prints were limited in the number of their impressions solely by market demand or by the maximum number that could be printed by the medium used. The inherent physical limitations of the print media and the relatively small size of the pre-twentieth century print market meant that non-limited edition prints from before the late nineteenth century were in fact quite limited in number even though not intentionally so. German printmaker Adam von Bartsch, in his 1821 Anleitung zur Kupferstichkunde, estimated the maximum number of quality impressions it was possible to pull using different print media.
Engraving: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
Stipple: 500 (and about the same number of weaker images)
Mezzotint: 300 to 400, though the quality suffers after the first 150
Aquatint: Less than 200
Wood block: Up to 10,000
It was only with the development of lithography and of steel-facing of metal plates in the nineteenth century that tens of thousands of impressions could be pulled without a loss of quality. These technological developments led to the idea of making limited edition prints, by which printmakers created an appearance of rarity and individuality for multiple-impression art.
Artist's Proofs:
Artist's proofs are those impressions from an edition that are specifically intended for the artist's own use. These impressions are in addition to the numbered edition and are so noted in pencil as artist proof or A/P. The legitimate number of artist's proofs for a given edition us usually around 10% of the total.
Restrike:
A subsequent printing from an original plate, stone, or block is called a restrike. Restrikes are usually printed posthumously or without the artist's authorization.
States:
Once the artist has drawn an image, he or she may pull several prints. If the artist subsequently changes the image, the first prints are called first state, and the subsequent prints with the change, second state. The artist can continue to make changes, with the number of states going as high as ten or more. These state proofs are, for demanding collectors, objects of desire.
Mixed Method:
A mixed method print is one whose design is created on a single matrix using a variety of printmaking techniques, for example: line engraving, stipple, and etching.
Matrix:
A matrix is an object upon which a design has been formed and which is then used to make an impression on a piece of paper, thus creating a print. A {wood} block, {metal} plate, or {lithographic} stone can be used as a matrix.
Pochoir:
Hand-printed image using a stencil. Sometimes used to apply color to a printed image.
Original Print:
An original print is one printed from a matrix on which the design was created by hand and issued as part of the original publishing venture or as part of a connected, subsequent publishing venture. For fine art prints the criteria used is more strict. A fine art print is original only if the artist both conceived and had a direct hand in the production of the print. An original print should be distinguished from a reproduction, which is produced photomechanically, and from a restrike, which is produced as part of a later, unconnected publishing venture.
In many cases each piece is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.
Signed:
A signed print is one signed, in pencil or ink, by the artist and/or engraver of the print. A print is said to be signed in the plate if the artist's signature is incorporated into the matrix and so appears as part of the printed image. Proof prints were originally signed as "proof" that the impression met the artist's expectation. Later proof prints were signed in order to add commercial value to these impressions. In the late nineteenth century, in response to the development of photomechanical reproduction techniques, fine arts prints were signed by the artists in order to distinguish between original prints and reproductions. Seymour Haden and James McNeil Whistler are usually credited with introducing this practice in the 1880s.
Reproduction:
A reproduction is a copy of an original print or other art work whose matrix design is transferred from the original by a photomechanical process. A facsimile is a reproduction done to the same scale and appearance as the original.
Stone Lithography:
Based on the natural antipathy which grease and water have for each other. After the surface of a limestone block is smoothed, washed and dried, a drawing in a greasy lithographic chalk or ink is made directly onto the stone. The stone is then moistened with water and the printing ink is applied with a roller. This ink affixes to the greased image but is repelled by the remainder of the wet stone. The image can then be taken off on a sheet of damp paper under light pressure.
Stencil:
Ink passes through openings in a matrix.
Registration:
In the color printing process, registration refers to the exact placement of paper and printing matrix to ensure accurate location of color.
On Demand:
Usually a digital matrix available for a printer who prints in response to a purchase request. The process is very rapid hens the term "On Demand."
Catalogue Raisonné
A scholarly reference text in which each print known to have been executed by a particular artist is completely documented and described. The information given may include title, alternate titles, date, medium, size of the edition, image size, paper used, and other pertinent facts. The term is also used for similar catalogs of paintings, sculptures, drawings, watercolors, or other works by a single artist or workshop.
The catalogue raisonné is the principal resource in the fight against print fraud. All of the most famous, most expensive printmakers have their catalogue raisonné, and any print which does not figure there is necessarily of dubious legitimacy
History of Printmaking
Printmaking originated in China after paper was invented (about A.D. 105). Relief printing first flourished in Europe in the 15th century, when the process of papermaking was imported from the East. Since that time, relief printing has been augmented by the various techniques described earlier, and printmaking has continued to be practiced as one of the fine arts.
Chinese Stone Rubbings and Woodcuts
Stone rubbing actually predates any form of woodcut. To enable Chinese scholars to study their scriptures, the classic texts and accompanying holy images were carved onto huge, flat stone slabs. After the lines were incised, damp paper was pressed and molded on the surface, so that the paper was held in the incised lines. Ink was applied, and the paper was then carefully removed. The resulting image appeared as white lines on a black background. In this technique lies the very conception of printing. The development of printing continued with the spread of Buddhism from India to China; images and text were printed on paper from a single block. This method of combining text and image is called block-book printing.
The earliest known Chinese woodcut with text and image combined is a famous Buddhist scroll, about 5 m (about 17 ft) long, of the Diamond Sutra (ad 868, British Museum, London). These early devotional prints were reproduced from drawings by anonymous artisans whose skill varied greatly. The crudeness of the images indicates that they were reproduced without any thought of artistic interpretation, but as was to be true in Europe during the 1400's, such early works of folk art were important in the development of the print.
Toward the end of the Ming dynasty in the 1640s, there appeared a text called Painting Manual of the Mustard-Seed Garden. This was actually an encyclopedia of painting, intended for the instruction and inspiration of artists. Many of its beautiful instructive woodcuts were in color as well as in black and white. A reprint edition of the Painting Manual was brought to Japan, and with it came the basic woodcut technique, which Japanese artists gradually developed.
Before the printing press, printmaking was not considered an art form, rather a medium of communication. It was not till the 18th century that art prints began to be considered originals and not till the 19th that artists began to produce limited editions and to sign their prints along with the technical information necessary to authenticate the work.
Engraving goes back to cave art, executed on stones, bones and cave walls. The duplication of engraved images goes back some 3,000 years to the Sumerians who engraved designs on stone cylinder seals. Academics think that the Chinese produced a primitive form of print, the rubbing, as far back as the 2nd century AD. The Japanese made the first authenticated prints, wood-block rubbings of Buddhist charms, in the late-middle eighth century.
Printmaking in Europe
European printmaking began with textile printing as early as the sixth century, while printing on paper had to wait a bit longer for the arrival of paper technology from the Far East. The first paper produced in Europe was in Játiva in Spain in 1151. The first woodcuts printed on paper were playing cards produced in Germany at the beginning of the 15th century. It was only slightly before this that the first royal seals and stamps appeared in the England of Henry VI.
Printing from a metal engraving was introduced a few decades after the woodcut, and greatly refined the results.
The earliest dated printed engraving is a German print dated 1446, "The Flagellation," and it was in Germany that early intaglio printing developed before passing to Italy (Mantegna, Raimondi, Ghisi) and the Low Countries (Lucas van Leyden, Goltzius, Claesz, Matsys). From makers of playing cards the metal engraving technique passed to artists where it probably reached its apex in the hands of Albrecht Dürer in the 16th century. Dürer represented a watershed in the history of printmaking, and, since he traveled to Italy, his influence was felt there in a direct way.
17th century: Rubens, Van Dyck, Jaques Callot, Claude Lorrain, José de la Ribera, Rembrandt (approximately 300 plates).
Master of woodcut, Katsushika Hokusai, who in the last half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th produced some 35,000 drawings and prints, many of them recognized masterpieces, many of which were to exert an important influences on European printmakers.
18th century, Tiepolo, Canaletto (3,000 large arquitectural etchings). Hogarth. Rowlandson and William Blake, and Francisco Goya.
19th century, Ingres, Delacroix, the Barbizon School (Daubigny, Theodore Rousseau and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot) Honoré Daumier, who made more than 4,000 lithographs. Among the Impressionists were Manet and Degas, English Francis Seymour Hayden, and Americans, James McNeil Whistler, James Audubon.
Printmaking flourished in the first half of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso made etchings, engravings, drypoints, woodcuts, lithographs and lino cuts. Then came Braque, Matisse, Rouault, Chagal, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Jan Arp, Salvador Dalí and others. In Germany it was Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Ernst Barlach, Erich Heckel, Oskar Kokoschka and others. Then came the Bauhaus with Kandinsky and Paul Klee. In England Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Anthony Gross who created lithographs, and in the United States George Wesley Bellows in lithography, John Sloan and Reginald Marsh in etching and Milton Avery in drypoint. Also Edward Hopper and Ben Shahn.
Recent Trends
The English artist Stanley William Hayter (1901-88) established and ran, from 1927 to 1940, a Paris workshop called Atelier 17 to teach etching and engraving. Atelier 17 was transferred to New York in 1940 and remained in operation for 15 more years, becoming the Mecca for creative intaglio printmaking. The technical innovations that later came from such artists as Mauricio Lasansky (1914- ), Antonio Frasconi 1919- ), and Gabor Peterdi (1915- ) were a direct result of Hayter's inspiration.
In the 1960s the specialized workshop for the graphic artist became important. The most influential was the studio run by Tatyana Grosman (1904-82) on Long Island, where major artists gathered to make prints. This arrangement was so successful that a close working relationship between master printer and artist developed in several other studios. The Tamarind Lithography Workshop, founded in California by June Wayne (1918- ) and now located in New Mexico, became an important creative center for graphic artists. Many of the best contemporary artists have been drawn to such centers, including Larry Rivers, Josef Albers, and such abstract expressionists as Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Jim Dine (1935- ). Printmaking workshops are now spread across the country, mostly located at major colleges and universities.
Drawing away from the vision of the abstract expressionists were young artists of the pop culture (Pop Art). Here material from the mass media magazines, newspapers, films, and photographs were combined impersonally and repetitively, often resulting in imaginative imagery. Through the use of advertisements and other mundane images, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana (1928- ) set out to challenge graphic tradition.
Modern printing has delivered to individual artists a similar group of digital tools which have transformed music, photography, and movie making.
Types of Printing. Giclee, uses a specialized printer to deliver a fine stream of ink onto archival paper or canvas. It results in museum-quality art of incredibly vivid color, depth, and resolution. - Serigraphy, presses ink through a silk screen resulting in a print that resembles a painting. Silk-screening enables the artist to vary colors and patterns while printing. - Lithography, uses a substance to draw an image on limestone or a metal plate. Ink coats the design and repels non-greasy areas. Finally, paper is laid over the stone to transfer the linked image onto the page. The process is repeated for each color in the image.
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