![]() ![]() In Europe, wealthy patrons still drove demand for paintings, sculptures, and altarpieces, but printmakers could create for a more diverse audience of collectors. These developments in movable type led to greater access to printed media, such as books, since printing was less expensive than creating a painting or drawing, and prints could be reproduced in multiples. Later, in 15th century Europe, a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg developed a mechanical printing press that built on knowledge of printmaking processes gained through centuries of trade along the Silk Road, between East Asia and Europe. A thirteenth-century Korean inventor named Chwe Yoon Eyee created the first metal movable type, made of cast bronze, which was more durable than the previous known iterations made of wood or clay. In eleventh-century China, the artisan Bi Sheng created a clay collection of individual Chinese letterforms that could be freely assembled in any desired combination, a process called movable type. While in the 21st century, we are accustomed to the ubiquity and accessibility of printed and digital imagery (think of billboards, magazines, social media, etc.), prior to the 11th century in East Asia, and the 15th century in Western Europe, unique images were reproduced by hand, making them rare, expensive, and available only to an elite few. The advent of printmaking technologies contributed to shifts in how media is both produced and consumed. ![]() The four standard printmaking methods you’ll explore in this chapter are relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil. A set of identical impressions made from an individual plate or group of plates is called an edition. Around the late 19th century, artists began to sign and number each impression, though this did not become common in the United States until the 1960s. Prints differ from paintings or drawings in that they usually exist in multiples created from the same inked matrix (the exception would be a monoprint). The matrix is then inked, and the image is transferred to paper, or another material such as fabric, through pressure, creating a reverse impression. In printmaking, the matrix is often made of wood, metal, or stone, but it can also be made of wax paper, linoleum, or even a potato!Īn artist creates an image to print by drawing or carving onto the matrix’s surface using tools or chemicals. A matrix is a template or the base from which the print is pulled. The process of making a print starts with a matrix. History of Printmaking (Tribeca Printworks).This is a recommended resource for further background on the history of the print. ![]() “History of Printmaking” is a short essay from Tribeca Printworks summarizing the history of printmaking from the Han Dynasty China, to the 21st century. The reading linked below complements the information presented in this chapter. ![]()
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