Module 6: Printmaking and Early 20th Century Art

Printmaking Basics

• Definition: Prints are created by an artist or under their supervision. The creator of the plate is credited, not the printer.
• Editions: Prints are made in planned editions, denoted as a fraction (e.g., 1/20). The plate is usually destroyed or stored after reaching this number.
• Components:
  • Substrate: Usually paper.
  • Plate: Contains the image.
  • Ink: Used for transferring the image.

Types of Printing

Relief Printing

• Definition: Prints made from the raised portion of a plate.
• Materials: Wood, metal, linoleum, stone.
• Examples:
  • Woodcut: Soft wood used; example: Hans Baldung's "The Witches."
  • Wood Engraving: Uses end grain of denser wood; example: Edward Calvert's "The Brook."
  • Linocut: Uses linoleum; example: Elizabeth Catlett's "Sharecropper."

Intaglio Printing

• Definition: Ink is placed in the recessed portions of the plate.
• Techniques:
  • Engraving: Grooves cut into metal/wood; uses hatching for tone.
  • Dry Point: Lines scratched directly into metal; example: Edward Thomas Daniels' "Sir Lyngham Ferry."
  • Etching: Metal plate coated with acid-resistant wax, then acid-etched; example: Rembrandt's self-portrait.
  • Aquatint: Value areas etched using resin and acid; example: Mary Cassatt's "The Bath."

Lithography

• Definition: Based on oil and water antipathy; drawn with grease crayon or touche.
• Examples:
  • Daumier's "Gargantua" (political cartoon).
  • Toulouse-Lautrec's "Moulin Rouge Le Goulier."

Screen Printing

• Definition: Stencils or light-sensitive resist applied to fabric stretched on a frame.
• Example: Andy Warhol's images of Marilyn Monroe.

Early 20th Century Art

Fauvism

• Characteristics: Bright contrasting colors, simplified shapes.
• Example: Henri Matisse's "Woman with a Hat."

Expressionism

• Characteristics: Bold execution, distortion, symbolic color.
• Example: Wassily Kandinsky's "Composition 7."

Cubism

• Characteristics: Multiple views, geometric reconstructions in flat space.
• Examples:
  • Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon."
  • Georges Braque's "The Portuguese."

American Art

• Influence: Armory Show of 1913 introduced modern European art to Americans.
• Examples:
  • Georgia O'Keeffe's close-up nature scenes.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural designs.

Futurism

• Characteristics: Celebrates motion and speed.
• Examples:
  • Umberto Bocchioni's "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space."
  • Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase."