Notes on the history of printmaking

The print and the typographical regime

Example of metal movable types composition

Before the invention of the camera in the mid Nineteenth Century, when ordinary people would rarely travel more than short distance from home, few could read well and the knowledge of distant places and populations could only be gained through the skill of writers and artists. Nevertheless, only the rich could commission an artist to depict, for instance, a "view". So, before photography became the main method of transmitting visual information, prints were the only effective and economic way for the common person to study, discover and learn. After Gutenberg's invention, it still took two or three hundred years before books and prints became generally available in Europe and in the New World, yet they were able to reach a wide and heterogeneous market made of different orders of people concerning economical status and level of education. After an initial fortune as devotional art, during the Renaissance printmaking became the natural completion of the book industry and, consequently, it became the visual abridger of the most important scientific works. The divulgation of much information regarding botany, zoology, geography, astrology, anatomy and medicine could be successful thanks to the prints, that were much more detailed than hand-drawings made by monks, which became more approximate from copy to copy.

Printing books with movable types

French amanuensis miniature 14th century

The appearance of movable types, ascribed to Johan Gutenberg's discovery, was not the fortunate invention of a shrewd mind but rather the logical consequence of an incredible number of researches made in all the print shops throughout Europe. The exigency of passing the limits of the amanuensis practice could not wait longer and the movable types granted countless advantages, as they allowed the distribution of types and – consequently – the possibility to make several changes in the page make-up and to re-use the same types for all the texts. A larger number of copies could be printed in a shorter time, if compared to the production of manuscripts. The prolification of print shops and the dizzy growth of printed stuff quickly led to a cultural revolution: ideas could travel beyond national borders, literacy became more accessible, new professional orders spread (typographers, editors, printmakers, illustrators, font-designers, pressmen et cetera). In more than a few cases, the success of many intellectuals was determined by the work of their editors.

From woodcut to intaglio

German woodcut 1491 showing the production and commerce of books

Abrahm Bosse, printing an etching with a vandercook press, 17th century

Until the XV Century, the only printmaking device known to reproduce images and illustrations was woodcut, which means a relief print technique that exploits a matrix of solid wood. Woodcut had been known for many centuries, in Asia above all, where it had been used to produce books and scrolls of great beauty, especially in Korea and China. Woodcut could grant beautiful designs, but the block of wood would warp or perish easily and that meant not very large editions. Furthermore, the improvement of the critical taste started to demand illustrations with finer details and thinner lines and woodblocks, cut along the grain of the log, could not allow a precise line-work. In 1450, in Florence, the goldsmith Maso da Finiguerra discovered a new technique: chalcography (nowadays generally known as intaglio), by substituting the wood matrix with a metal plate and by printing the depth of lines rather than the flat surface, as it used to happen with relief prints. From the technical point of view, intaglio is the exact opposite of relief printing, because the metal plate is inked up so to have black marks equivalent to the furrows and cleavages. These innovative prints met with approval and outshone woodworks. Starting from the XVII Century, artists experimented new approaches in order to be able to exploit the expressive power of tones, which led to the discovery of aquatint and consequently to all the contemporary, experimental techniques. Researches gradually led to lithography, a branch of printmaking whose matrix is a stone, with the advantages of a quicker flat printing, capable of bearing several layers in juxtaposition.

The Nineteenth Century: lithography, newspapers and offset printing.
Desire for information is one with the birth of a social system, but the development of printing alone could permit a net of information large enough to embrace the whole society and ensure a circulation of objective news. Newspapers appeared in the XV Century, when the improvement of movable types could quickly print folios and a new postal service could deliver them through its mail couriers. At the beginning, only folios and pamphlets were printed, in occasion of special happenings. To have a regular information system, we need to wait until the late XVIII Century and Romanticism. England has the been the pioneer, but at the dawn of the XIX Century any country in Europe saw the birth of all the most important newspapers (most of them still active today): The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, Il Corriere della Sera, La Gazzetta di Parma. Such a growth could be possible because the printing techniques had refined enormously and the raw materials were used and recycled with a better organization. In terms of graphics, the XIX Century has been the moment for a radical revolution: all what had always been made by hand was now made in a mechanical way thanks to the linotype. With the use of this machine, 2 men could set type for several pages of a newspaper in just a matter of hours instead of several days. This saved so much time, that all the energy was spared or conveyed in improving the illustration front. Lithography was the perfect medium developed in the perfect historical moment. The system itself – also known as chemical printing on stone – does not provide any difference in level between the matrix (so the print) and sheet of paper. A totally flat print is printed faster and does not need almost any time to dry up. On the industrial scale, lithography became really popular when it replaced stones with large zinc sheets, because the latter were suitable for being printed by cylindrical-plane machines. The flexible zinc plates were attached to the plate cylinder.

Hoe printing press ten multilayer sheets, 1856

The plate was kept moist throughout so that ink would only adhere to image areas. During every cycle of the press, the ink image was first transferred to a rubber surfaced blanket cylinder and from there to the paper. This indirect method is the 'offset' after which the process is named. With the XX Century, photomechanical reproduction devices took the place of traditional printmaking and permitted to publishing the definitive leap from handicraft to industrial reality.

The querelle about original prints
Despite the strong bond with the publishing world as well as the fact that many of the improvements printmaking did were dictated by the necessity of being functional, printmaking is, before anything else, a fine art, an expression of genius. The lofty results of Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya and so many others prove the artistic value of prints, completely detached from the complex dynamics of interaction with the other arts and crafts. Nowadays, there is the tendency to speak of original prints or works of original graphics and to exclude all the photomechanical techniques from what can be considered – and commercialized as – original. There is a need of our contemporaneity to revalorize printmaking after the chaos of the Sixties and Seventies, when a lot of fake reproductions were made and sold as originals. At this point, it is vital to divide commercial prints and art prints and to give artists some guidelines, in order to grant the utmost creativity without sacrificing the artistic and creative side of the process. The parameter of originality can be used when the print meets specific standards, set and constantly revised by international conventions.

Originality

Rocket plate preparation

“What is the difference between a reproduction and an original print? In the very early days of printmaking this was not a serious problem because the print was not looked upon as a precious art object, and prices were low. The question of originality became an issue only in the XVIII Century, and, in the XIX Century, when artists started to hand sign their prints. The fine print is a multiple original. Originality is generally associated with uniqueness, but a print is considered original because the artist from the outset intended to create an etching, woodcut, or other graphic work and thus conceived his image within the possibilities and limitations of that technique. Without doubt, early printmaking was strongly influenced by a desire for multiple prints. Artists quickly discovered, however, that when a drawing is translated into a woodcut or engraving it takes on totally new characteristics. Each technique has its own distinctive style, imposed by the tools, materials, and printing methods. The metamorphosis that takes place between drawing and printing became the strongest attraction for the creative artist. It is important to understand that the artist does not select his printing method arbitrarily but chooses the one in which he can best express himself. Thus, any of the proofs printed from an original plate is considered an original work of art, and, although most fine prints are pulled in limited quantities, the number has no bearing on originality, only on commercial value”.
Excerpt by Gabor F. Peterdi, Encyclopædia Britannica Article, 2007

“An original print is a work of art created by an artist alone, or in collaboration with a master printmaker. The requirements of an original print are that:

An original print is distinguished from other so-called prints when it is not photographically reproduced from another image or transferred by offset. Fine art prints can be etchings, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, serigraphs (screen prints) or collographs. Prints are highly collectable items and may increase in value according to the artist's reputation, and the particular work. Original prints by artists increase in value in time in the same way as paintings. When an original print edition is completed, the original plate or block is cancelled, ensuring the originality and the respect of the limit of the edition.
A photographically produced offset lithograph print, a photographically derived silkscreen print or a giclee/iris print can be referred to as a reproduction of an already existing image. No matter if the artist has signed prints made through the aforementioned techniques, the signature does not give them the same integrity as an original fine art print.
Photographically derived prints have limited future as collectibles.
A reproduction has no special value even when it has been produced in a signed limited edition. Many prominent artists have reproduced their paintings through printmaking technologies and have signed these reproductions inappropriately as ‘original prints', hence debasing the currency of printmaking. Fortunately the art collecting public is becoming increasingly well informed about what constitutes an original etching, lithograph, screen print or relief print and overpriced reproductions are becoming more of an embarrassment to their owners than a prudent investment.”
Excerpt by Sasha Grishin, Australian Art Review Issue 13, March 2007

© All texts written by Elena Governo, except where mentioned. Progetto Ecate September 2007.