The Original Print: Understanding Technique in Contemporary Fine Printmaking FROM THE PUBLISHER
For many art lovers, the term "print" suggests a two-dimensional work on paper made by one of a dozen or so half-understood techniques. Aquatints, etchings, lithographs, screenprints... What are these techniques? How are they used? How do artists and master printers employ them to create specific effects? The Original Print: Understanding Technique in Contemporary Fine Printmaking is both a portfolio of exceptional contemporary prints and a guide to printmaking techniques and effects. Nearly 100 prints from nine of North America's top print houses are reproduced in full color. Works are grouped by technique and accompanied by commentary from the print publisher or master printer describing the creative process used to develop the image.
Curator and former gallery owner Chris Byrne has specialized in contemporary fine art prints for the last fifteen years. In The Original Print, he describes the history and basic approach of the primary printmaking techniques, while also exploring the collaborative relationships of artists and master printers as they create new images for the expanding contemporary print audience.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Printmaking spans everything from hand prints on ancient cave walls to Rembrandt's copper etchings of the Virgin and Child and Warhol's soup cans to the potato prints made by today's second grader at the kitchen table. Byrne, a print publisher and curator, here focuses on strictly contemporary uses of etching, aquatint, lithography, and screen printing. He covers both basic techniques and the joint experimentation of artist and master printer, surveying the American print scene with examples from ten of the top North American print houses. Recommended for collections serving advanced students and professionals. Chief curator of the Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Lambert here offers a very fine, short volume that concentrates on traditional printmaking methods, including relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil. She uses examples from William Hogarth to Victor Vasarely, drawing on the collections of the V & A. Lambert addresses students and collectors, including a glossary of technical terms, abbreviations found in print inscriptions, and a select bibliography. This is recommended for popular collections but cannot replace John Ross and Clare Romano's essential and far more comprehensive Complete Printmaker. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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