Printmaking
History
• History
• Screenprinting has its origins in simple stencilling, most
notably of the Japanese form (katazome), used on
textiles, mostly for clothing. This was taken up in France.
The modern screenprinting process originated from
patents taken out by Samuel Simon in the early 1900s in
England. This idea was then adopted in San Francisco,
California, by John Pilsworth in 1914 who used
screenprinting to form multicolor prints in much the same
manner as screenprinting is done today.
• Screenprinting took off during the First World War as an
industrial process for printing flags and banners. The use
of photographic stencils at this time made the process
more versatile and encouraged widespread use.
Printing technique
• A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric (originally silk, but
typically made of polyester or nylon since the 1940s) stretched over an
aluminum frame. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable
material-a stencil-which is a positive of the image to be printed; that is, the
open spaces are where the ink will appear.
• The screen is placed on top of a piece of dry paper or fabric. Ink is placed on
top of the screen, and a squeegee (rubber blade) is used to push the ink
evenly into the screen openings and onto the substrate. The ink passes
through the open spaces in the screen onto the paper or fabric below; the
screen is lifted away and then the squeegee is pushed back across the
screen, with the screen lifted, "flooding" the ink into the screen. The screen
can be re-used after cleaning. If more than one color is being printed on the
same surface, the ink is allowed to dry and then the process is repeated with
another screen and different color of ink.
• While the public thinks of garments in conjunction with screen printing, the
technique is used on tens of thousands of items, including birthday cake
designs, decals, clock and watch faces, the electromagnetic faces of Palm
Pilots and so much more. The vast majority of silk-screen printings are
monochromatic.
Stenciling techniques
• There are several ways to create a stencil for screenprinting. The simplest is
to create it by hand in the desired shape, either by cutting a piece of paper
(or plastic film) and attaching it to the screen, or by painting a negative
image directly on the screen with a filler material which becomes
impermeable when it dries. For a more painterly technique, the artist may
choose to paint the image with drawing fluid, wait for the image to dry, and
then "scoop coat" the entire screen with screen filler. After the filler has dried,
a hose can be used to spray out the screen, and only the areas that were
painted by the drawing fluid will wash away, leaving a stencil around it. This
process enables the artist to incorporate their hand into the process, to stay
true to their drawing.
• A method that has increased in popularity is the photo emulsion technique:
• The original image is placed on a transparent overlay. The image may be
drawn or painted directly on the overlay, photocopied, or printed with a laser
printer, as long as the areas to be inked are opaque. A black-and-white
negative may also be used (projected on to the screen). However, unlike
traditional platemaking, these screens are normally exposed by using film
positives.
• The overlay is placed over the emulsion-coated screen, and then exposed
with a strong light. The areas that are not opaque in the overlay allow light to
reach the emulsion, which hardens and sticks to the screen.
• The screen is washed off thoroughly. The areas of emulsion that were not
exposed to light - corresponding to the image on the overlay - dissolve and
wash away, leaving a negative stencil of the image attached to the screen.
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Photographic screens can reproduce images with a high level of detail, and
can be reused for thousands of copies. The ease of producing transparent
overlays from any black-and-white image using a photocopier makes this
the most convenient method for artists who are not familiar with other
printmaking techniques. The low resolution and size limitations of a
photocopier make film positives necessary in professional screen printing
environments. Artists can obtain screens, frames, emulsion, and lights
separately; there are also preassembled kits, which are especially popular
for printing small items such as greeting cards.
Novice screenprinters often overlook the importance of "squeegee pulling,"
that is, the act of pushing ink through the holes between fibers in the
screen's mesh to produce the final product. A steeper angle (laying the
squeegee down flat handle facing the person inking) will naturally push
more ink through the screen, whereas having the squeegee perfectly
vertical will push a minimal amount of ink through the screen. Depending on
the definition and quality the item being printed on requires, a variation
between the two angles will be necessary.
Andy Warhol
• Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
in 1928. In 1945 he entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology
(now Carnegie Mellon University) where he majored in pictorial
design. Upon graduation, Warhol moved to New York where he
found steady work as a commercial artist. He worked as an
illustrator for several magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar
and The New Yorker and did advertising and window displays for
retail stores such as Bonwit Teller and I. Miller. Prophetically, his first
assignment was for Glamour magazine for an article titled "Success
is a Job in New York."
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Throughout the 1950s, Warhol enjoyed a successful career as a
commercial artist, winning several commendations from the Art
Director's Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. In these
early years, he shortened his name to "Warhol." In 1952, the artist
had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery, exhibiting Fifteen
Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. His work was
exhibited in several other venues during the 1950s, including his first
group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956
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The 1960s was an extremely prolific decade for Warhol. Appropriating images from
popular culture, Warhol created many paintings that remain icons of 20th-century art,
such as the Campbell's Soup Cans, Disasters and Marilyns. In addition to painting,
Warhol made several 16mm films which have become underground classics such as
Chelsea Girls, Empire and Blow Job. In 1968, Valerie Solanis, founder and sole
member of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) walked into Warhol's studio, known
as the Factory, and shot the artist. The attack was nearly fatal.
At the start of the 1970s, Warhol began publishing Interview magazine and renewed
his focus on painting. Works created in this decade include Maos, Skulls, Hammer
and Sickles, Torsos and Shadows and many commissioned portraits. Warhol also
published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again). Firmly
established as a major 20th-century artist and international celebrity, Warhol
exhibited his work extensively in museums and galleries around the world.
The artist began the 1980s with the publication of POPism: The Warhol '60s and with
exhibitions of Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century and the Retrospectives and
Reversal series. He also created two cable television shows, "Andy Warhol's TV" in
1982 and "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" for MTV in 1986. His paintings from the
1980s include The Last Suppers, Rorschachs and, in a return to his first great theme
of Pop, a series called Ads. Warhol also engaged in a series of collaborations with
younger artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Keith
Haring.
Following routine gall bladder surgery, Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987. After his
burial in Pittsburgh, his friends and associates organized a memorial mass at St.
Patrick's Cathedral in New York that was attended by more than 2,000 people.
In 1989, the Museum of Modern Art in New York had a major retrospective of his
works.
Masaaki Tanaka
Masaaki Tanaka was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, in 1947, the eldest son of Akio
Tanaka, a Western-style painter, and his wife, Toshiko. Tanaka attended the
Musashino Art University, majoring in Oil Painting. His work in oils reflected
the trends of the time eloquently. He educated himself in silk-screen printing
after learning wood-block printmaking and stone lithography, while making
repeated visits to the United States and Europe.
For ten years - l982-l99l - his works were featured each week on the covers
of Japan's most famous weekly magazine, Shukan Shincho, which has a
circulation of well over one-half million. Tanaka and his work is well known
throughout Japan and now Tennessee Players is proud to make Tanaka's
serigraphs available to art connoiseurs everywhere.
In the United States Tanaka's works have been exhibited in New York,
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Ft. Worth and
Hawaii. An exhibition held in Plano, Texas, attracted more than twenty-two
hundred art patrons in a four-week period. His next show in America is
scheduled to be held at the beautiful Botanic Gardens in Memphis,
Tennessee. in March, 2002, when the cherry blossoms will be in bloom.
When President Ronald Reagan visited Japan in 1983, one of the gifts which
the Japanese Government presented the President was a Signed, Limited
Edition serigraph by Masaaki Tanaka
"Cherry Blossoms and Mt. Fuji"
12" x 23"
Completed 1991
5 Colors
"Downtown Atlanta, Georgia"
3 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Completed 1999
9 Colors
• Japan even today has nurtured the ancient custom of community
festivals. Some festivals invite the Gods to move among the people.
Some are "Festivals of Thanks" for a good harvest or the depiction
of historical events or folk tales. The main thing is the importance of
the coming together of whole communities.
In the ingeniously simple but daring designs Tanaka has produced in
his remarkable silk-screens do much more than just record a
historical moment. They burst with color, many with spectacular
fireworks, and dynamic vitality.
Flaming red dragons and the golden costumes of lion dancers are
but a few of the colorful visual images of these great Japanese
annual events in cities and villages throughout the country. You do
not have to be Japanese to appreciate Tanaka's art and the culture
that created it. Every single serigraph has a magic all its own that
quickly becomes an emotion through the eyes of the beholder. Any
one of these "Matsuri" serigraphs will be an exciting and valuable
asset to any collection.
One art critic said, regarding Tanaka's work, "You are not
reproducing the past, rather, you are creatng a new past."
"Kirita-Kagura"
10" x 14"
Completed 1984
10 Colors
Resources
• http://tanaka-fineart.com/serigraph.html