| Hard
Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process,
Curators: David Platzker and Elizabeth Wyckoff, November 2, 2000
- January, 2001 at the AXA Gallery, New York City (tour through
2002).
International
Print Center New York’s Inaugural Exhibition, Hard Pressed:
600 Years of Prints and Process, examined the relationship
between aesthetics and technology throughout the history of printmaking
and into the present. This exciting exhibition not only situated
the fine art print in a larger, historical context, but it also
brought to the fore the richness and creativity of the printmaking
process. The exhibition was accompanied by a 128 page catalogue
published by Hudson Hills Press in association with IPCNY, with
full color plates and essays by the curators, David Platzker,
independent curator and Director of Printed Matter in Manhattan,
and Elizabeth Wyckoff Ph.D., Print Specialist at the New York
Public Library. The catalogue
is available through IPCNY. The exhibition consists of approximately
150 artworks, which challenge and redefine printmaking in terms
of medium and method. Artists represented in the exhibition include
Lesley Dill, Louise Bourgeois, Peter Halley, Not Vital, Felix
Gonzalez-Torres, Chuck Close, Ed Ruscha, Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol,
Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso,
Marcel Duchamp, Emile Nolde, Arthur B. Davies, Edvard Munch, William
Blake, Francisco Goya, Jacques Callot, Rembrandt van Rijn, and
Albrecht Dürer.
Initially,
the nature of the print as a serially produced image was its most
powerful characteristic. As a conveyor of visual information in
the form of "exactly repeatable pictorial statements,"
the printed image is credited with advances in the sciences as
well as the humanities, and prints were often collected more for
their information than for their artistry. An artist could disseminate
and promote his work by creating prints himself or by commissioning
prints that reproduced his work from a professional printmaker.
In the hands of an artist like Rembrandt however, the print verged
upon becoming a unique object, close to painting or drawing. This
self-conscious notion of the "original print" has become
increasingly predominant in the 20th century, culminating
in the production of signed, limited editions, which has had the
effect of making precious something that is, potentially, endlessly
repeatable. There have, in turn, been artists throughout the last
century, including Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Peter Halley,
who have sought to subvert this "preciousness," for
political as well as aesthetic reasons.
The
early history of printmaking tends to be seen as one of successive
refinement, from rudimentary devotional woodcuts of the early15th
century to Albrecht Durer’s virtuosic, cross-hatched images
of the decades around 1500. Hard Pressed explored how,
as new, easier to manipulate media evolved, artists not necessarily
trained in the cutting of blocks or plates began to make prints,
frequently with unorthodox results: the use of etching by painters
is one prominent example from the 16th and 17th
centuries. The decision by artists to "mix-and-match"
printing methodologies has compelled the practice to constantly
evolve.
Hard
Pressed charted the intricacies of innovative printmaking
as it has evolved over the past six centuries, illuminating the
respective roles of artists, master printers, and publishers.
The continual reinvention of the print, from chiaroscuro woodcut
to etching, lithography, photo-offset, and high definition digital
imaging, bears witness to the tendency towards individual and
collaborative participation in the development of new and the
revival of old techniques.
The
presentation of Hard Pressed in New York was accompanied
by artist’s and curator’s talks, workshop visits and
other educational programming. Following its run in the home venue,
the Exhibition traveled to Boise, Idaho, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and Naples, Florida.
Tour dates were:
March 3-May 6, 2001: Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho
June 8-Sept 9, 2001: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Oct.16, 2001-Jan.6, 2002: Naples Museum of Fine Art, Naples, Florida
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