A Brief History of Printmaking in the West

In an era where visual information is mass produced every day via print and electronic media, it has become hard to imagine a time when each picture was created as a rare, one-of-a-kind image. There was a time, however, when painted and drawn images were available only to the wealthy few. With the invention of printmaking technology at the end of the Middle Ages, a European revolution in communication and artistic expression ensued.

The earliest method of printmaking was known as relief printing: an image was carved into a block of wood or metal plate and then printed from the raised surface of the block or matrix. Intaglio printing, an artistic process derived from goldsmithing, was developed soon after. Although they required a more elaborate press, the intaglio techniques of etching, engraving and drypoint allowed for a greater range of tone and texture. The invention of movable type, around 1450, brought a means to mass produce images in combination with text. This innovation fueled the information explosion that swept through Europe during the Renaissance.

Like most technologies, printmaking has evolved for essentially practical purposes. However, it has also been embraced by artists seeking out new ways to express themselves creatively. The son of a goldsmith, German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471 -1528) developed printmaking to a high-level art form during the Renaissance. Dürer was a master of the woodcut but used intaglio methods as well. He became famous, as did the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, (1606 - 1669), for mastering the techniques of print making and, subsequently, making his artwork more readily accessible to the public. Although Rembrandt is primarily remembered as a painter today, during his lifetime his etchings earned him the admiration of his contemporaries.

In the 19th Century, new innovations such as stone lithography and silkscreen printing further expanded the artist's printmaking repertoire. A variety of new effects, including the use of colour, could now be achieved. It is interesting to note that even with all the advances made in printmaking technology, the old methods of relief printing continue to inspire artists today. As in the past, the advantage of accessibility and reasonable cost of prints make original fine art available to be enjoyed by a wider audience.

Printmaking in Canada

Although printmaking was an important art form in Europe at the end of the 19th Century, in Canada it was viewed primarily as a method of book illustration. It was not until the early years of the 20th Century that the block print became an important form of artistic expression. Several members of the Group of Seven, including Franklin Carmichael and J.E.H. MacDonald, helped to establish the print as an important artists' medium. The period between the World Wars saw an explosion in the popularity of printmaking among Canadian artists. Some of the greatest examples of the printmaker's art in Canada to date were created during this period.

What is an Original Print?

An original print is one printed from a matrix on which the design was created by hand and issued as part of the original print run. For fine art prints the criteria is more strict: a fine art print is original only if the artist both conceived and had a direct hand in the production of the print. An original print should be distinguished from a reproduction, which is produced photomechanically, and from a restrike, which is produced as part of a later, unconnected publishing venture.

Historical Canadian Printmakers of Note

• Walter J. Phillips
• Ernst Lindner
• H.E. Bergman
• Fritz Brandtner
• Sybil Andrews
• L.L. Fitzgerald
• Edwin Holgate
• Fred Haines
• A.J. Casson
• Franklin Carmichael
• J.E.H. Macdonald
• Charles Comfort
• Mary Wrinch
• Andre Bieler
• Alex Musgrove
• Valentine Fanshaw
• Maxwell Bates
• Jack Shadboldt
• E.J. Hughes

Current Canadian Printmakers

• David Blackwood
• Richard Calver
• Ivan Eyre
• Wilf Perreault
• Andrew Valko

Printing Techniques Defined

Relief: The image is created from ink held on areas that are not carved away from the matrix. Methods of relief printing are woodcut, wood engraving, and linocut (See definitions below)

Intaglio: The image is created from a metal plate which holds the ink in areas lowered below the level of the original surface. Methods of intaglio printing are engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint and dry point (See definitions below).

Planographic: A flat image is hand drawn in a greasy medium onto a matrix of stone, zinc or hardened paper. Transfer of the image onto paper depends on the antipathy between water and oil, where the oil-based ink will adhere to the greased areas but not to the areas moistened with water. The most common planographic method of printing is lithography (See definition below).

Serigraph: A print made using a stencil process in which an image or design is superimposed on a very fine mesh screen and printing ink is squeegeed onto the printing surface through the area of the screen that is not covered by the stencil. Serigraphic method is silkscreen printing and some stencil printing.

A Glossary of Print Making Terms

Aquatint: Intaglio technique using melted rosin dust to etch areas of textured tones.

Drypoint: Intaglio technique in which an image is drawn directly into the surface of a metal plate with a sharp etching needle. This raises a burr which will hold the ink if wiped properly.

Edition: An edition of a print includes all the impressions published at the same time or as part of the same print run. Editions of a print should be distinguished from states of a print.

End grain block: A block of wood used for wood engraving. It is the cross section of a tree, usually boxwood or maple.

Engraving: Precise groves are cut into a plate with a sharp tool called a burin; widely used for early reproductive printmaking.

Etching: Corrosive action of acid eats into the surface of a metal plate; or, the print created by this process.

Impression: A single piece of paper with an image printed on it from a matrix; one copy of the image.

Linoleum cut / lino cut: Relief print made with a linoleum matrix.

Litho Crayon: Used in Lithography to draw on stone. Contains grease.

Lithography: A planographic process in which the ink is transferred from a flat surface that has been chemically prepared to accept water in some areas. The other areas will accept the ink (see also Stone Lithography below).

Matrix: The surface (usually wood, metal or stone) on which an image is actually made, and which is then inked in preparation for the making of each print.

Mezzotint: An intaglio process. A copper plate is roughened to hold the maximum amount of ink. Areas which are burnished or made smoother will hold less ink and show up as lighter areas.

Plate: A flat sheet of metal, usually copper, steel or zinc, used as a matrix for a print. Metal plates are used for intaglio prints and for some lithographs.

Platemark: The rectangular ridge created in the paper of a print by the edge of an intaglio plate. Unlike a relief or planographic print, an intaglio print is printed under considerable pressure, thus creating the platemark when the paper is forced together with the plate. Some reproductions have a false platemark.

Print: A piece of paper upon which an image has been imprinted from a matrix. In a general sense, a print is the set of all the impressions made from the same matrix. By its nature, a print can have multiple impressions.

Proof: An impression of a print pulled prior to the regular, published edition of the print. A trial, or working, proof is one taken before the design on the matrix is finished. These proofs are pulled so that the artist can see what work still needs to be done to the matrix.

Registration: In the color printing process, registration refers to the exact placement of paper and printing matrix to ensure accurate location of color.

Remarque: A small vignette image in the margin of a print, often related thematically to the main image. During the etching revival in the late nineteenth century, remarques became popular as an additional design element in prints and were also used in the creation of remarque proofs.

Reproduction: A copy of an original print or other art work whose matrix design is transferred from the original by a photomechanical process. A facsimile is a reproduction done to the same scale and appearance as the original.

Signed: A signed print is one signed by the artist in pencil or ink in the margin of the print. In the late nineteenth century, in response to the development of photomechanical reproduction techniques, fine art prints were signed by the artist in order to distinguish between original prints and reproductions. Seymour Haden and James McNeil Whistler are usually credited with introducing this practice in the 1880s.

State: A state of a print includes all the impressions pulled without any change being made to the matrix.

Stencil: One of four categories of printing. Ink passes through openings in a matrix.

Stone Lithography: Based on the natural antipathy which grease and water have for each other. After the surface of a limestone block is smoothed, washed and dried, a drawing in a greasy lithographic chalk or ink is made directly onto the stone. The stone is then moistened with water and the printing ink is applied with a roller. This ink affixes to the greased image but is repelled by the remainder of the wet stone. The image can then be taken off on a sheet of damp paper under light pressure.

Wood engraving: A detailed form of woodcut. Uses the relief process where an image is cut into end-grain wood block with gravers and burins.

Wood cut: Uses the relief process where an image is cut into side-grain plank of wood with gouges and chisels.