Printmaking: Eastern And Western Hemispheres

1. Discuss the origins of printmaking in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Printmaking originated in China after paper was invented around AD 105. Relief printing appeared in Europe in the 15th Century, when the process of papermaking was imported from the East. The most common form, and the earliest is woodcut.

2. Discuss the origins of papermaking.

Papermaking was invented in 105 A.D. in China. This invention was reported to the Eastern Han Emperor Ho-di by Ts'ai Lun, an official of the Imperial Court. They used and broke the bark of a mulberry tree into fibers mixed with water and then pounded them into a sheet. Later on, they strained the pulp to get a smoother finish. After this discovery, the paper was then used for writing.

3. Discuss

the early history of movable type and the resulting impact on society.
Moveable type is a system of printing and typography that uses moveable stamp like components that produce a script on paper.

This impacted society because the use of written language became more accessible. Books became more accessible, and affordable as well. After this, the invention of the printing press was developed in 1440.

4. Discuss the history of relief printing.

A relief print is used when an image is printed from a raised portion of a carved, etched or a cast block. It’s called relief because the lines and surfaces the ink sticks to are higher than the parts that are not printed. The most common type of a relief print is wood cut. Woodcut is also the oldest method of printmaking, when first developed in China in the 9th century. Then it first appeared in Europe in the 15th century when the technique of papermaking was brought over from the East.

5. Discuss the history of intaglio printing.

Most early intaglio prints were book illustrations and religious images. It first appeared in Europe in the late 1430’s. From the Italian meaning to carve or cut into, an intaglio print involves cutting into or incising an image into metal place with tools and/or acids. The two basic types of intaglio printing are engraving and etching. Engraving an image is used with needles, scrapers, or rockers. An etched image is used with

acid.

6. Discuss the history of lithography.
Lithography was a new invention of relief printing in the 15th century. It was invented in Germany in 1796 by Alois Senefelder. Within 20 years it was then used throughout Europe and the United States. It’s a method based on the chemical repellence of oil and water. A smooth plate is used, usually limestone, metal or plastic, then a design is drawn with a greasy material. The image repels the water and hold the oily ink while the rest of the surface does the opposite.

7. Discuss the history of silkscreen.
Also known as serigraphs, a term developed by Anthony Velonis of New York. Seri comes from the Latin work for silk and graphein, deriving from Greek, which means to write or draw. It’s a 20th Century printmaking technique that was developed in America (The origin of screen-printing may have been in Japan, where artist made large, delicate paper cuttings in which the elements were joined and held together by human hair.) It was introduced as a fine art technique with an exhibition of serigraphs at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Silkscreen is when ink is squeegeed though a screen onto a medium, the most common is paper and fabric. Once a light sensitive emulsion is applied to the screen, an image using an acetate paper can be placed on top. Once the light “cooked” the emulsion but not the image onto the screen, it can be washed away and used for printing.

8. Discuss the history of photography.
Photography was introduced in 1839, when discovered a metal based, iodine sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor captured detailed images of the natural world.

The first camera to be invented was the camera obscura. The term comes from Latin, camera meaning "dark room,” or “chamber or room," and obscura "darkened, dark"), also referred to as pinhole image.

9. Discuss the renaissance of fine art printing and publishing in the 20th century.

Since the invention of photography in the 1800’s, it had a great impact on the development of art. The most influenced was printmaking, especially with photo silkscreen, which made printing with photographs more common. The 20th century is also known for the experimental direction art was heading towards. More of a variety of art was established, such as cubism, feminism, expressionism, etc. Such artists like Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Wassily Kandinsky etc. all have used printmaking as a medium within their careers.

10. Discuss William Ivins- who as he and what text did he write?

William Ivins was born in 1881, who was an overseer for prints located at the Metropolitan Museum in 1916. He wrote the book, Prints and Visual Communication in 1953. It’s a novel about the history of printmaking broken down into centuries, which focus on the importance of each one, also mentioning the advancements founded within as

well.

11. Discuss at least three writers, critics and/or curators focusing on printmaking.
Beth Grabowski: Printmaking: a complete guide to materials & processes. A book that disuses all ranges of print mediums, techniques and case studies, including silkscreen, relief, intaglio, collagraph, lithography and many more.
Josh MacPhee: a designer, artist, and archivist. He’s a member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and Interference Archive which is a public collection of cultural materials produced by social movements based in Brooklyn, NY. He is also an author and an editor of some publications, including Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now and Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics and Culture.
Luis Camnitzer: a German-born Uruguayan artist as well as a writer, who moved to New York in 1964. He works primarily in printmaking, sculpture, and installations. He’s written Conceptualism in Latin American art, New art of Cuba, On Art, Artists, Latin America, and Other Utopias and many more.

12. Discuss at least three essays and/or articles we read in class- what resonated with you?
Margins by Charles Beneke: Discuses pushing the boundaries within printmaking with techniques and ideas.
Why Study Prints Now? Or, The World According to Bartsch by Peter Parshall: Discusses the importance and the relationship with prints within the past centuries. How to move from this point but also recognize the beauty within such pieces as well and how the craftsmanship, techniques and materials should be appreciated.
John Berger Ways of Seeing Parts I-IV: (even though this isn’t an essay/article I felt like I resonated with this the most). These videos go into full detail about things we don’t really think about within our normal traditions of art. Like the first one for example, which talks about photography and how that affected the art world immensely by reproducing important works by just snapping a photograph.

13. What (if any) ideas do you disagree with?
I wouldn’t say I disagree with any, I’m a very open minded person and I do appreciate everyone’s opinions and views on certain topics. As an artist, I see works and articles differently than I did back in high school because now I learned how to see things from their point of view and why they might feel a certain way. Similar to saying, tomayto, tomahto. How it’s used as an expression meaning “unimportant difference.”