Printmaking a go go

My cobbled together take on art history as follows. Will post another one with my own tips and examples...

History of printmaking

Engraving apparently goes back to cave art, seen on stones, bones and cave walls. The duplication of engraved images goes back some 3,000 years to the Sumerians who engraved designs on stone cylinder seals. Academics think that the Chinese produced a primitive form of print, the rubbing, as far back as the 2nd century AD. The Japanese made the first authenticated prints - wood-block rubbings of Buddhist charms, in the late-middle eighth century.

European printmaking began with textile printing as early as the sixth century, while printing on paper had to wait a bit longer for the arrival of paper technology from the Far East. The first paper produced in Europe was in Spain in 1151. The first woodcuts printed on paper were playing cards produced in Germany at the beginning of the 15th century. Printing started in Europe as a process to make reproductions of original art works.

By the 19th Century printmaking underwent a resurgence and was used in making original artworks by many European artists, who were influenced strongly in both technique and motif by a long history Japanese woodcuts. Experimental printmaking flourished in this period.

Types of printmaking

The four major types of printmaking are intaglio, relief printing, stencilling, and planographic printing.

Lino and wood cuts are both examples of relief printing (also called block printing) – as the plates /blocks are carved away, leaving raised areas which transfer ink onto the paper. Japanese printmakers added a new twist, printing uninked plates to achieve white-on-white relief designs, a practice called in Spanish, "golpe en blanco".

Etching, engraving, drypoint and aquatint work differently, as the recessed areas of the plate carry the ink (rather than the raised areas). These styles of printmaking are referred to as intaglio.

Some of the many artists who have used lino and wood cuts

- Katsushika Hokusai - in the last half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th produced in the order of 35,000 drawings and prints.
- Edvard Munch
- Paul Gauguin
- Salvatore Zofrea - a contemporary artist living in Sydney who uses woodcuts
- Picasso - dabbled in lino
- Matisse
- Margaret Preston
- Thea Proctor


References / Sources & more info

Warringah Print Studio
This site has a great detailed list of suppliers for various materials and equipment. They also have exhibitions and special workshops through the year.

Arts and Craft NSW
This website has lots of images representing a number of different styles and printmaking techniques.

World Printmakers Organisation

Dictionary of Printing Terms

Margaret Preston

Wichmann, S. (1999) Japonisme, the Japanese influence on Western Art since 1858. Thames and Hudson.

Ittman, J (1998) Post-Impressionist Prints, Paris in the 1890’s. Philadelphia Museum of Art