The Processes of Mass Production: Printmaking and Photography

Reading:Artforms, 105-132

Terms/Concepts: print, matrix, edition, artist’s proof, relief, woodcut, registered, wood engraving, linoleum cut, intaglio, engraving, burin, etching, aquatint, drypoint, lithography, tusche, stencil, screenprinting, photo screen,

heliotype, daguerreotype, photograph, developer, plate, film, kodachrome, “straight photography”

What is printmaking?

"...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.” –Encyclopedia Britannica

print·mak·ingnoun \-ˌmā-kiŋ\1: the design and production of prints by an artist

Basic Components of Printmaking

Matrix Surface

+

Ink

+

Print

=

Relief

Woodcut Linocut

is the process of making a print with a matrix where the non-image area (negative space) is cut away and the image area (positive space) is left raised.

1. Removing the ground.

2. Inking the Cut

3. Printing the cut onto your surface

Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912, Woodcut, 12 1/2” X 8 13/16”

*Areas of high contrast; values cannot really be blended.

Strong

Raw

Powerful

Intense

Rough

*

Rockwell Kent, Workers of the World Unite, 1937, woodcut print, 8” X 5 1/8”

**

Areas of high contrast

Delicate lines

*

Distance between lines simulates modulated chiaroscuro.

*Less white = Fewer areas gouged out

Katsushika Hokusai, The Wave, from 1000 Views of Mt. Fuji, 1830, color woodblock print*, 10 1/4” X 15 1/8”

* To add different blocks of unblended color, multiple woodcuts are used—one for each color. They are registered (lined up) to ensure that the blocks are correctly placed.

Intalgio

Engraved plate using drypoint Prepped plates about to be etched

is a printmaking process that transfers the images via the areas that are cut away, not the raised areas (the opposite of relief printing).

1a The Plate: Engraving

Burins

Engraving a plate

Burr

is simply creating burrs (or troughs where the ink settles) by engraving into the metal plate.

1b Plate: Etching

Applying the ground

1.

Smoking the plate

2.

Making the image

3.

Making the etch

4.

Cleaning the plate

5. 6.

Finished plate

2. Inking the Plate 1.

Inking the plate

2.

Removing excess ink

Applying paper to plate

1.

3. Making the Print

Running press over plate

2.

Finished print

3.

Albrecht Durer, The Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513, Engraving, 9 5/8” X 7 1/2"

**

more delicate details than woodcuts

less dramatic contrasts

complex

subtle

detailed

fine

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Christ Preaching, 1652, Etching, 61 1/4” X 8 1/8”

*Etching with acid creates consistent depth of lines.

*More subtle shading effects are possible with etching.

Mary Cassatt, The Letter, drypoint, soft ground etching, and aquatint, 13 5/8” X 8 15/16”

*Aquatint

*Drypoint

*multimedia

Lithography

is a printmaking process that transfers the image via a stone, working with the natural resistance between oil and water.

1. Draw on the Stone

*This process is also called greasing the stone

2. Treat the Stone

Treating with gum arabic

1.

Treating with acid

2.

Cooling the stone

3.

Removing the material

4.

Applying Asphaltum

5.

Wetting the stone

6.

*Ghost Image*

3. Printing

Wetting the Stone

1.

Inking the Stone

2.

Rewetting the Stone

3.

Applying the Paper

4.

Printing

5.

Finished Print

6.

Honore Daumier, Rue Transnonain April 15, 1834, 1834, Lithograph, 28.6 cm X 44 cm.

*Replication of drawing marks and techniques

*Subtle gradations, not reliant on sharp contour lines

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1893, Lithograph in five colors, 50 5/8” X 37”

*Multi-color technique used multiple stones

Silkscreen

or screenprinting is a process where a print is made by forcing ink through porous fabric, often through or around a stencil.

1. Screen

Choose porous fabric

1.

Stretch and staple screen

2.

Seal screen

3.

Finished screen

4.

2. Stencil

Apply Emulsion

1.

Place Image

2.

Expose to light

3.

Rinse screen

4.

Phot

ogra

phic

Bloc

k O

ut

Apply glue around image

1.

Let dry

2.

Cut O

ut

Cut image

1.

Remove excess

2.

Finished screen

3.

3. Printing

Spread ink with squeegee

2.

Finished Print

3.

Position paper

1.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, oil, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 80 4/5” X 57”

multiple screens were used to create different colors

*

Screens do not print the same way after many repetitions.This work shows how the image degrades after repeated use.

*

Ester Hernandez, Sun Mad, 1982, Silkscreen, 22” X 17”

*Sharp contrast between different fields of color. Evidence of multiple screens.

Printmaking methods were used commercially for packaging and advertisements.

* *

What is photography?

Literally: Light (Photo) Drawing (Graphy)

the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface –Miriam Webster

PHOTOGRAPH, n. A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite so good as that of a Cheyenne. –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

Joseph Nicephore Niepce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826, Heliographic Engraving (Niepce)

Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Le Boulevard du Temple, 1839, Daguerreotype.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Julia Jackson, March 1886, Albumen silver print from wet-collodion glass negative, 13 1/4” X 11”

Early Processes

Prepping the Plate Taking the Exposure Developing the Exposure

Early Processes

Prepping the Plate Taking the Exposure Developing the Exposure

Early Processes

Prepping the Plate Taking the Exposure Developing the Exposure

Early Posing Chair, mid-19th century.

Diagram of early posing tool, mid-19th century

Invention of Film

*George Eastman invented rolled photographic film in 1889.

Kodak Brownie Junior Box Camera. c. 1933

Alfred Stieglitz, The Flatiron Building from Camera Work, October 1903, Gravure on vellum.

Coloring Photos

Young Women in Geisha Garb, Late 19th Century-Early 20th Century, Hand-Painted Tintype

Cypress Gardens Postcard, 1957, Kodachrome Photograph.

Circulating the Image/Message

Honore Daumier, Rue Transnonain April 15, 1834, 1834, Lithograph, 28.6 cm X 44 cm.

Circulating the Image/Message

Margaret Bourke-White. Louisville Flood Victims. 1938. Photograph.

Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944, Photograph.

Experimenting with the Medium

Man Ray, Rayograph, 1927, Gelatin Silver Print, 11 9/20” X 9 1/10”

Elizabeth Murray, Exile from Thirty-Eight, 1993, 23 color lithograph/screenprint construction with unique pastel application by the artist.

Medium as Meaning

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, oil, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 80 4/5” X 57”