Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:58:28 +0200
From: Miguel Booth <[log in to unmask]>


World Printmakers Newsletter      Number 30, July/August, 2004
 

The Unfinished Print

It gives us a great deal of satisfaction this summer to present an online sampler of  The Unfinished Print exhibition at The Frick Collection in New York.  After so many years of seeing printmaking play second fiddle it's frankly great to see a bigtime art institution like The Frick give star billing to prints.  And what prints!  The exhibition includes fifty-seven impressions in varying degrees of completion by European masters from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century (of which our article reproduces fourteen; don't forget you can click to see them enlarged.)  Most of them are from the National Gallery's extraordinary collection of 58,000 prints. These landmarks in the history of printmaking by artists including Goltzius, Dürer, and Rembrandt provide illuminating examples in the history of aesthetic resolution, inviting viewers to look over the artist's shoulder as he develops an image through a series of working proofs and states.

 

>From World Printmakers' point of view of view as printmaking advocates, this show is doubly gratifying, in that no other medium can provide the step-by-step graphic insight to an artist's creative process.  We all owe a debt of gratitude to Peter Parshall, curator of Old Master prints for the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where a larger version of the exhibition was shown in the fall of 2001, for it was Parshall who conceived and developed the original concept of "The Unfinished Print."

 

"Here We Are, and Here's Our Work"

Skipping from old masters to fresh new artists, we present an extract from the Fine Art Printmaking Degree Show of the Cardiff School of Art and Design.  This virtual version of the exhibit is thanks to the initiative of Jessie Brennan, one of the students, who wrote us last spring:  "I am writing to inform you of an exhibition of prints by contemporary artists in Wales. The exhibition by final-year printmaking students brings together the recent work of 16 artist-printmakers from the Fine Art department at Cardiff School of Art & Design, UWIC. The work was produced during spring 2004, using a number of traditional printmaking techniques: etching, stone lithography, screen printing and relief processes."  We not only can't resist the opportunity to give a boost to student printmakers, but we have a profound respect for young artists like Jessie, who have the courage to proclaim to the wide world (in this case World Printmakers), "Here we are, and here's our work!"  So, here they are, and here's their work.

 

Colorful New Sponsors

You may have noticed that the World Printmakers homepage has a new note of color at the bottom, the sunflower-yellow banner of Caligo Inks.  This third-generation family business manufactures a comprehensive range of fine-art printing inks at their state-of-the-art factory in Cwmbran Gwent in Wales (UK).  Though we haven't visited them yet (We're dying to take up their invitation to do so!), judging from their website (www.caligoinks.com), these folks are seriously committed to their craft, not only in their traditional style products, but also in their innovative line of "safe wash"inks.  They're currently expanding and looking for new distributors on both sides of the Atlantic, so if you're a distributor of fine-art materials, you might give them a ring.  And don't forget to tell them, you saw them first on World Printmakers!

 

See you next fall.  In the meantime, have a peaceful and fruitful summer, and don't forget: ¡Viva el grabado!

 

Kind regards,

 

Mike & Maureen Booth

Editors and Publishers

World Printmakers

The Worldwide Showcase for
Contemporary Fine-Art Printmakers

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