EXHIBITION STATEMENT:

At its most basic level, a print is an image produced from a matrix created through pressure. Thousand-year-old handprints on cave walls are a type of print:  the hand is the matrix.  The earliest known printed book is the Diamond Sutra dated 868 C.E. found in the Mogao Grottos in China. It was printed from carved woodblocks. Johannes Gutenberg’s experimentation with movable type in 1440 transformed printmaking in Europe, leading to the need for mass production of paper. Newer forms of printmaking flourished as technologies developed. 

The artworks in the main gallery highlight various printmaking processes from across the centuries and around the globe.  Processes include relief (woodblock, linocut, monotype), intaglio (etching, photogravure, drypoint), lithography, and serigraphy.  Prints are displayed according to technique used, with contemporary artists shown alongside historical examples.

– Melissa Schulenberg
Charles A. Dana Professor of Art and Art HIstory