Pressed for Time: History of Printmaking

Flint Institute of Arts

Flint | Michigan | USA

Sep 10, 2016 - Dec 30, 2016

Pressed for Time: The History of Printmaking is a historical survey of the four major processes of printmaking in the Western world. Selected prints highlight the remarkable diversity and ingenuity of this medium. The four methods of relief (woodcut), intaglio (etching, engraving), planographic (lithography), and stencil (screenprinting) will be represented, along with a brief look at the new medium of digital printing. Beginning with a 15th-century woodcut by Michael Wolgemut and continuing through to the 21st-century, with a silkscreen print by Shepard Fairey, Pressed for Time includes works by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, James Abbot McNeill Whistler, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Winslow Homer, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Edward Hopper, Romare Bearden, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.

Over the last five centuries, the creative potential of printmaking has attracted many of the world’s great artists who turned to printmaking because the various processes offered unique alternatives to painting or drawing. And because the works were made in multiples, images could also be distributed more widely and more inexpensively to people wanting to collect art. Even today, a painting or sculpture can be financially out of reach for many, but a print more often is within one’s budget. With the abundance of printed material today, many people do not understand the difference between an original print and a reproduction. Through detailed explanations of the historical development of the various processes and the technical characteristics of creating an original print, visitors can increase their awareness and appreciation of this medium and why artists have embraced a particular process or, in some cases, a combination of processes.