Original Prints 2023: Group Show

Which is the oldest method of printing

Stencilling is the first printing technique. Palaeolithic hand stencils are found in European and South American caves dating back 7000BC. Hand stencils were formed by placing a hand against the wall and covering the surrounding area in pigment. Next came wood block printing - carving a design into a block of wood and inking the block to print on fabric was developed in China around 200AD. Before 1400 printing was on fabric as paper hadn't been invented. Printing was used commercially, for signs and religious imagery - as most people were illiterate.

Fine Art printing

The Renaissance painters of northern Europe and Italy begin to make artists prints on paper after 1450. Many artists came from families of carpenters, jewellers and engravers. The greatest painter/printmaker of the 15c (maybe all time) was Albrecht Durer who’s father was himself a goldsmith. The point is relevant as in the late medieval age there wasn’t a line drawn between art, craft and trade. Painters like Durer, and later Rembrandt ( who was the finest etcher of the 17c) would have been well acquainted with the tools used for carpentry, which was a lower class trade, or Jewellery making - a profession of the upper classes. It is these same tools which artists borrowed and used in wood block printing, engraving and copper plate etching.

Throughout the ages art is littered with examples of exemplary printmaking - Goya’s war etchings, Picasso’ linocuts of women and bulls, and Andy Warhol’s screen printed soup cans are immediately recognisable, just as 21c graffiti artist Banksy’s lithograph, Girl With Balloon and Kaws 2022 Gone and Share screen prints are branded into our psyche. Printmaking in all forms is more popular than at any time in history.

CIRCLE’s dedicated FINE PRINT SPACE is a platform for all types of contemporary printmakers.