Mount Fuji, from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, color woodcut by Katsushika Hokusai

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a 'print'. Each piece produced is not a copy but considered an original since it is not a reproduction of another work of art and is technically (more correctly) known as an 'impression'. Printmaking (other than monotyping) is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple copies, but rather for the unique qualities that each of the printmaking processes lends itself to.

Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Common types of matrices include: metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings; and linoleum for linocuts. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below.

Multiple impressions printed from the same matrix form an edition. Since the late 19th century, artists have generally signed individual impressions from an edition and often number the impressions to form a limited edition. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artist's books.

Techniques[link]

Overview[link]

Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories:

• Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix. Relief techniques include: woodcut or woodblock as the Asian forms are usually known, wood engraving, linocut and metalcut;
• Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the original surface of the matrix. Intaglio techniques include: engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint
• Planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image. Planographic techniques include: lithography, monotyping, and digital techniques.
• Stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including: screenprinting and pochoir

Other types of printmaking techniques outside these groups include collagraphy, viscosity printing, and foil imaging. Collagraphy is a printmaking technique in which textured material is adhered to the printing matrix. This texture is transferred to the paper during the printing process. Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing, photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes.

Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family. For example Rembrandt's prints are usually referred to as "etchings" for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all.

Woodcut[link]

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Portrait of Otto Müller, 1915

Woodcut, a type of relief print, is the earliest printmaking technique, and the only one traditionally used in the Far East. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, and by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper. Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Europe, and slightly later in Japan. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text.

The artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper which is transferred to the wood. Traditionally the artist then handed the work to a specialist cutter, who then uses sharp tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink. The surface of the block is then inked with the use of a brayer, and then a sheet of paper, perhaps slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is then rubbed with a baren or spoon, or is run through a printing press. If in color, separate blocks can be used for each color,or a technique called reduction printing can be used.

Reduction printing is a name used to describe the process of using one block to print several layers of color on one print. This usually involves cutting a small amount of the block away, and then printing the block many times over on different sheets before washing the block, cutting more away and printing the next color on top. This allows the previous color to show through. This process can be repeated many times over. The advantages of this process is that only one block is needed, and that different components of an intricate design will line up perfectly. The disadvantage is that once the artist moves on to the next layer, no more prints can be made.

Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia. Taring Padi Posters usually resemble intricately printed cartoon posters embedded with political messages. Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan, then smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas.

Engraving[link]

"Melencolia I", engraving by Albrecht Dürer, one of the most important printmakers.

The process was developed in Germany in the 1430s from the engraving used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper. Engraving using a burin is generally a difficult skill to learn.

Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types. The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. Other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects.

To make a print, the engraved plate is inked all over, then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving only ink in the engraved lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times; typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the printing plate shows much sign of wear, except when drypoint, which gives much shallower lines, is used.

In the 20th century, true engraving was revived as a serious art form by artists including Stanley William Hayter whose Studio 17 in Paris became the magnet for such artists as the Japanese master Shoïchi Hasegawa.

Etching[link]

"The sleep of Reason creates monsters", etching and aquatint by Francisco Goya

Etching is part of the intaglio family (along with engraving, drypoint, mezzotint, and aquatint.) The process is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470-1536) of Augsburg, Germany, who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking. Etching soon came to challenge engraving as the most popular printmaking medium. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing.

The Three Crosses, etching by Rembrandt

Etching prints are generally linear and often contain fine detail and contours. Lines can vary from smooth to sketchy. An etching is opposite of a woodcut in that the raised portions of an etching remain blank while the crevices hold ink. In pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy or acrylic ground. The artist then draws through the ground with a pointed etching needle. The exposed metal lines are then etched by dipping the plate in a bath of etchant (e.g. nitric acid or ferric chloride). The etchant "bites" into the exposed metal, leaving behind lines in the plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate, and the printing process is then just the same as for engraving.

Artists using this technique include Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Francisco Goya, Whistler, Otto Dix, James Ensor, Edward Hopper, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly, Lucas van Leyden, Carlos Alvarado Lang.

Mezzotint[link]

An intaglio variant of engraving in which the image is formed from subtle gradations of light and shade. Mezzotint—from the Italian mezzo ("half") and tinta ("tone")--is a "dark manner" form of printmaking, which requires artists to work from dark to light. To create a mezzotint, the surface of a copper printing plate is roughened evenly all over with the aid of a tool known as a rocker; the image is then formed by smoothing the surface with a tool known as a burnisher. When inked, the roughened areas of the plate will hold more ink and print more darkly, while smoother areas of the plate hold less or no ink, and will print more lightly or not at all. It is, however, possible to create the image by only roughening the plate selectively, so working from light to dark.

Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones: first, because an evenly, finely roughened surface holds a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secondly because the process of smoothing the texture with burin, burnisher and scraper allows fine gradations in tone to be developed.

The mezzotint printmaking method was invented by Ludwig von Siegen (1609–1680). The process was used widely in England from the mid-eighteenth century, to reproduce oil paintings and portraits.

Aquatint[link]

A technique used in Intaglio etchings. Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks in a metal plate. Where the etching technique uses a needle to make lines that retain ink, aquatint relies on powdered rosin which is acid resistant in the ground to create a tonal effect. The rosin is applied in a light dusting by a fan booth, the rosin is then cooked until set on the plate. At this time the rosin can be burnished or scratched out to affect its tonal qualities. The tonal variation is controlled by the level of acid exposure over large areas, and thus the image is shaped by large sections at a time.

Goya used aquatint for most of his prints.

Drypoint[link]

A variant of engraving, done with a sharp point, rather than a v-shaped burin. While engraved lines are very smooth and hard-edged, drypoint scratching leaves a rough burr at the edges of each line. This burr gives drypoint prints a characteristically soft, and sometimes blurry, line quality. Because the pressure of printing quickly destroys the burr, drypoint is useful only for very small editions; as few as ten or twenty impressions. To counter this, and allow for longer print runs, electro-plating (here called steelfacing) has been used since the nineteenth century to harden the surface of a plate.

The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master, a south German fifteenth century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only. Among the most famous artists of the old master print: Albrecht Dürer produced 3 drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving.

Lithography[link]

La Goulue, Lithograph poster by Toulouse-Lautrec.

Lithography is a technique invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder and based on the chemical repulsion of oil and water. A porous surface, normally limestone, is used; the image is drawn on the limestone with a greasy medium. Acid is applied, transferring the grease to the limestone, leaving the image 'burned' into the surface. Gum arabic, a water soluble substance, is then applied, sealing the surface of the stone not covered with the drawing medium. The stone is wetted, with water staying only on the surface not covered in grease-based residue of the drawing; the stone is then 'rolled up', meaning oil ink is applied with a roller covering the entire surface; since water repels the oil in the ink, the ink adheres only to the greasy parts, perfectly inking the image. A sheet of dry paper is placed on the surface, and the image is transferred to the paper by the pressure of the printing press. Lithography is known for its ability to capture fine gradations in shading and very small detail.

A variant is photo-lithography, in which the image is captured by photographic processes on metal plates; printing is carried out in the same way.

Screenprinting[link]

Screenprinting (occasionally known as "silkscreen", or "serigraphy") creates prints by using a fabric stencil technique; ink is simply pushed through the stencil against the surface of the paper, most often with the aid of a squeegee. Generally, the technique uses a natural or synthetic 'mesh' fabric stretched tightly across a rectangular 'frame,' much like a stretched canvas. The fabric can be silk, nylon monofilament, multifilament polyester, or even stainless steel ([1]). While commercial screenprinting often requires high-tech, mechanical apparatuses and calibrated materials, printmakers value it for the "Do It Yourself" approach, and the low technical requirements, high quality results. The essential tools required are a squeegee, a mesh fabric, a frame, and a stencil. Unlike many other printmaking processes, a printing press is not required, as screenprinting is essentially stencil printing.

Screenprinting may be adapted to printing on a variety of materials, from paper, cloth, and canvas to rubber, glass, and metal. Artists have used the technique to print on bottles, on slabs of granite, directly onto walls, and to reproduce images on textiles which would distort under pressure from printing presses.

Monotype[link]

Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by pressing the two together, usually using a printing-press. Monotypes can also be created by inking an entire surface and then, using brushes or rags, removing ink to create a subtractive image, e.g. creating lights from a field of opaque color. The inks used may be oil based or water based. With oil based inks, the paper may be dry, in which case the image has more contrast, or the paper may be damp, in which case the image has a 10 percent greater range of tones.

Unlike monoprinting, monotyping produces a unique print, or monotype, because most of the ink is removed during the initial pressing. Although subsequent reprintings are sometimes possible, they differ greatly from the first print and are generally considered inferior. A second print from the original plate is called a "ghost print" or "cognate". Stencils, watercolor, solvents, brushes, and other tools are often used to embellish a monotype print. Monotypes are often spontaneously executed and with no preliminary sketch.

Monotypes are the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques, a unique print that is essentially a printed painting. The principal characteristic of this medium is found in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting, and drawing media.^[1]

Monoprint[link]

Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that uses a matrix such as a woodblock, litho stone, or copper plate, but produces impressions that are unique. Multiple unique impressions printed from a single matrix are sometimes known as a variable edition. There are many techniques used in monoprinting, including collagraph, collage, hand-painted additions, and a form of tracing by which thick ink is laid down on a table, paper is placed on the ink, and the back of the paper is drawn on, transferring the ink to the paper. Monoprints can also be made by altering the type, color, and viscosity of the ink used to create different prints. Traditional printmaking techniques, such as lithography, woodcut, and intaglio, can be used to make monoprints.

Digital prints[link]

Digital prints refers to images printed using a digital printer instead of a traditional printing press. These images can be printed to a variety of substrates including paper, cloth, or plastic canvas. Accurate color reproduction and the type of ink used (see below) are key to distinguishing high quality from low quality digital prints. Metallics (silvers, golds) are particularly difficult to reproduce accurately because they reflect light back to digital scanners. High quality digital prints typically are reproduced with very high-resolution data files with very high-precision printers. The substrate used has an effect on the final colors and cannot be ignored when selecting a color palette.

Pigment-based vs. dye-based inks[link]

Unlike pigment, dyes dissolve when mixed into a liquid. Dyes are organic (not mineral). Although most are synthetic, derived from petroleum, they can be made from vegetable or animal sources. Dyes are well suited for textiles where the liquid dye penetrates and chemically bonds to the fiber. Because of the deep penetration, more layers of material must lose their color before the fading is apparent. Dyes, however, are not suitable for the relatively thin layers of ink laid out on the surface of a print.

Pigment is a finely ground, particulate substance which, when mixed or ground into a liquid to make ink or paint, does not dissolve, but remains dispersed or suspended in the liquid. Pigments are categorized as either inorganic (mineral) or organic (synthetic).^[2]

A pigment, such as red iron oxide (rust) is simply an oxidized form of iron. One could leave iron, lead, or gold in the sun for a million years and they would never change color or change into another substance.^{[dubious – discuss]} In contrast, man-made synthetic and vegetable water-soluble dyes can fade rapidly, often within one to six months.

"Giclée" prints[link]

The term Giclée, derived from the French and meaning "to spurt", is sometimes used in the commercial fine art print community to describe the ink-jet printing processes listed above. It was originally associated with Iris printing process. Today fine art prints produced on ink-jet machines using the CcMmYK color model are generally called "Giclée".

Foil imaging[link]

In art, foil imaging is a printmaking technique made using the Iowa Foil Printer, developed by Virginia A. Myers from the commercial foil stamping process. This uses gold leaf and acrylic foil in the printmaking process.

Color[link]

Printmakers apply color to their prints in many different ways. Often color in printmaking that involves etching, screenprinting, woodcut, or linocut is applied by either using separate plates, blocks or screens or by using a reductionist approach. In multiple plate color techniques, a number of plates, screens or blocks are produced, each providing a different color. Each separate plate, screen, or block will be inked up in a different color and applied in a particular sequence to produce the entire picture. On average about 3 to 4 plates are produced, but there are occasions where a printmaker may use up to seven plates. Every application of another plate of color will interact with the color already applied to the paper, and this must be kept in mind when producing the separation of colors. The lightest colors are often applied first, and then darker colors successively until the darkest.

The reductionist approach to producing color is to start with a lino or wood block that is either blank or with a simple etching. Upon each printing of color the printmaker will then further cut into the lino or woodblock removing more material and then apply another color and reprint. Each successive removal of lino or wood from the block will expose the already printed color to the viewer of the print. Picasso is often cited as the inventor of reduction printmaking, although there is evidence of this method in use 25 years before Picasso's linocuts.^[3]

The subtractive color concept is also used in offset or digital print and is present in bitmap or vectorial software in CMYK or other color spaces.

Registration[link]

In printmaking processes requiring more than one application of ink or other medium, the problem exists as to how to line up properly areas of an image to receive ink in each application. The most obvious example of this would be a multi-color image in which each color is applied in a separate step. The lining up of the results of each step in a multistep printmaking process is called "registration." Proper registration results in the various components of an image being in their proper place. But, for artistic reasons, improper registration is not necessarily the ruination of an image.

This can vary considerably from process to process. It generally involves placing the substrate, generally paper, in correct alignment with the printmaking element that will be supplying it with coloration.^[4]

Protective printmaking equipment[link]

Protective clothing is very important for printmakers who engage in etching and lithography (closed toed shoes and long pants). In the past, many printmakers did not live far past 35 to 40 years of age^{[citation needed]} because of their exposure to various acids, solvents, particles, and vapors inherent in the printmaking process.

Whereas in the past printmakers put their plates in and out of acid baths with their bare hands, today printmakers use rubber gloves. They also wear industrial respirators for protection from caustic vapors. Most acid baths are built with ventilation hoods above them.

Often, an emergency cold shower or eye wash station is nearby in case of acid spillages, as well as soda ash- which neutralizes most acids. Some printmakers wear goggles when dealing with acid.

Protective respirators and masks should have particle filters, particularly for aquatinting. As a part of the aquatinting process, a printmaker is often exposed to rosin powder. Rosin is a serious health hazard, especially to printmakers who, in the past, simply used to hold their breath^{[citation needed]} using an aquatinting booth.

Barrier cream is often used upon a printmaker's hands both when putting them inside the protective gloves and if using their hands to wipe plates (wipe ink into the grooves of the plate and remove excess).

Sterile plasters and bandages should always be available to treat cuts and scrapes. For example, zinc plates can be extremely sharp when their edges are not beveled.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Hiroshige, The Plum Garden in Kameido, woodcut, 1857
  right: Van Gogh, Flowering Plum Tree, oil on canvas, homage to Hiroshige

• 

  Hiroshige, Great Bridge, Sudden Shower at Atake woodcut, c.1857
  right: Van Gogh, The Bridge in the Rain, oil on canvas, homage to Hiroshige

• 

  Felix Vallotton, La raison probante (The Cogent Reason), woodcut from the series Intimités, 1898

• 

  Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait, etching, c.1630

• 

  Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ Preaching, (The Hundred Guilder print); etching c.1648

• 

  Francisco Goya, There is No One To Help Them, Disasters of War series, aquatint c.1810

• 

  Carlos Alvarado Lang, Fallen tree, engraving

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: printmaking

• Artist's proof
• Banhua, Chinese printmaking
• Carborundum printmaking
• Edition
• Graphic design
• Line engraving
• Old master print
• Shin hanga
• Sosaku hanga
• Ukiyo-e
• Viscosity printing
• List of Printmakers

Printmakers by nationality[link]

• Engravers by nationality
• Etchers by nationality
• Printmakers by nationality

Notes[link]

References[link]

• What is a Print?, from the Museum of Modern Art
• Bamber Gascoigne: How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Inkjet (ISBN 0-500-28480-6)
• Multi-Color Block Prints: Wood/Linoleum - Reduction Method Technique, by Hannah Tompkins

Further reading[link]

• Beth Grabowski and Bill Fick, "Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes." Prentice Hall, 2009. ISBN 0-205-66453-9
• Donna Anderson Experience Printmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, 2009. ISBN 978-0-87192-982-2
• Gill Saunders and Rosie Miles Prints Now: Directions and Definitions Victoria and Albert Museum (May 1, 2006) ISBN 1-85177-480-7
• Antony Griffiths, Prints and Printmaking, British Museum Press, 2nd ed, 1996 ISBN 0-7141-2608-X
• Linda Hults The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-299-13700-7
• William Ivins, Jr. Prints and Visual Communication. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. ISBN 0-262-59002-6
• James Watrous A Century of American Printmaking. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984. ISBN 0-299-09680-7
• Carol Wax, The Mezzotint: History and Technique (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990)

External links[link]

Look up printmaking in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

History of printmaking; glossaries

• Museum of Modern Art, New York: What Is a Print?
• Thompson, Wendy. "The Printed Image in the West: History and Techniques". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 – . (October 2003)
• André Béguin's dictionary;enormous dictionary of terms, relating more to the printing than the creation of the image
• Another glossary - for modern prints
• Large list of links to museum etc. online images of prints
• Judging the Authenticity of Prints by The Masters by art historian David Rudd Cycleback
• Relief printing techniques as used and described by French printmaker Dominique Lecomte

Printmaking organizations

• Print Council of America
• International Fine Print Dealers Association
• SGC International (formerly Southern Graphics Council)
• Seattle Print Arts
• Bellebyrd - The Print Australia blogspot by art historian Josephine Severn.
• Iowa Biennial - Exhibition & Archive of Contemporary Prints
• Site dedicated to the activity of printmaking and thinking creatively. Includes footage of well-known artists working at Crown Point Press in San Francisco.
• Prints and Printmaking: Site devoted to Australian and Pacific printmaking practice and history
• Mini Print International of Cadaques Site of the longest running international print exhibition and competition, catalogues, archive, winners, exhibitions, jury...
• Mid America Print Council

Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith at the 2006 Time 100. Image from a Rocketboom vlog of the event.
Born	(1954-01-18) January 18, 1954 (age 58) Nuremberg, Germany
Nationality	American

Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954, in Nuremberg, Germany) is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the 20th century. Her Body Art is imbued with political significance, undermining the traditional erotic representations of women by male artists, and often exposes the inner biological systems of females as a metaphor for hidden social issues. Her work also often includes the themes of birth and regeneration, as well as sustenance, and frequently has Catholic allusions. Smith has also been active in debate over controversies such as AIDS, gender, race, and battered women.

Early life[link]

Smith grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and attended Columbia High School.^[1]

Kiki Smith began sculpting in the late 1970s. She is best known for her sculptures; however, she creates pieces in a variety of media. She was an active member of the artists' group Colab.^[2]

Her father was the artist Tony Smith and her mother the actress and opera singer Jane Lawrence Smith.^[3] They were both religious in some sense; her mother was a converted Hindu and Catholic, and her father was raised by Jesuits. Smith describes herself as spiritual, saying that, "the most important part of my life” has been spent “thinking about God or Gods”.^[4] There are underlying themes of devotion, religion, repetition, and/or spirituality in Smith's work, whether that be in reference to her own spirituality, or the spirituality of other cultures and their history. Smith has said that she was influenced by her experience as a learning disabled child in school, and that as a result it is important to her for her work to be accessible.^[5]

Career[link]

Since 1980, Smith has produced a myriad of works in media such as sculpture, prints, installations and others. These have been admired for having a highly developed, yet sometimes unsettling, sense of intimacy in their timely political and social provocations. These traits have brought her critical success.^[6]

Her print collection is particularly extensive and began in the 1980s. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has consistently collected her prints, and now owns over 50 of her print projects. Speaking of the quality of reproduction inherent to the medium, Smith has stated that "Prints mimic what we are as humans: we are all the same and yet every one is different. I think there's a spiritual power in repetition, a devotional quality, like saying rosaries." (1998) ^[7]

In the Blue Prints series, 1999, Kiki Smith experimented with the aquatint process. The "Virgin with Dove" was achieved with aquatint and airbrushing with stop-out, an acid resist that protects the copper plate and prevents the Prussian blue ink from adhering, therefore creating a halo around the Virgin and Holy Spirit.

Smith's first works were screenprints on dresses, scarves and shirts, often with images of body parts. In association with artist group Colab, Smith printed an array of posters in the early 1980s containing political statements or announcing upcoming events. A sampling of her other works include: All Souls (1988), a screenprint on 36 attached sheets of handmade Thai paper with repetitive images of a fetus, in black and white. Smith created similar prints including Untitled (Baby's Heads), 1990 and Untitled (Negative Legs), 1991. How I Know I'm Here (1985) is a 16-foot, horizontal, four-part linocut depicting internal organs including a heart, lungs, and male and female reproductive organs, intermingled with etched lines representing her own feet, face, and hands. Possession Is Nine-Tenths of the Law (1985) is a nine-part print portfolio that individualizes and calls attention to the body's internal organs. Smith used the image of a human ovum, surrounded on one side by protective cells, in Black Flag (1989), and 'Cause I'm On My Time (inserts for Fawbush Gallery Invitations ) (1990).

Mary Magdelene (1994), a sculpture made of silicon bronze and forged steel, features a woman's nude body in an untraditional way: her whole body is flayed, skin removed to show bare muscle tissue. However, her face, breasts and the area surrounding her navel remain smooth. She wears a chain around her ankle; her face is relatively undetailed and is turned upwards. Smith has said that when making Mary Magdalene she was inspired by depictions of Mary Magdalene in Southern German sculpture, where she was depicted as a "wild woman".^[5] Smith's sculpture Standing (1998), featuring a female figure standing atop the trunk of a dead Eucalyptus tree, is a part of the Stuart Collection of public art on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. While studying anatomy Smith worked with cadavers. For her sculptures she casts both the living and the dead, and has expressed that she tries to be respectful of their bodies.^[5]

In 2005, Smith's installation, Homespun Tales won acclaim at the 51st Venice Biennale.^[8]

"Lodestar," Smith's 2010 installation at the Pace Gallery, was an exploration of death and sickness represented by drawings of figures on large-scale plates of translucent glass and life-size sculpture.^[9]

Smith has also created an extensive collection of self-portraits, nature-themed works, and many pieces that depict scenes from fairy tales, often in unconventional ways.

Smith feels that she makes traditional objects.

Of figurative sculpture she has said, “they have real power in them, they take up some kind of psychic space,” and that, “I think that objects have memories. I’m always thinking that I’ll go to the museum and see something and have a big memory about some other lifetime.” ^[5]

She has created unique books, including: Fountainhead (1991); The Vitreous Body (2001); and Untitled (Book of Hours) (1986). Smith collaborated with poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge to produce Endocrinology (1997), and Concordance (2006), and with author Lynne Tillman to create Madame and Realism (1984).

In 2009, Smith was awarded the Brooklyn Museum Women In The Arts Award.^[10]

Kiki Smith has been represented by The Pace Gallery since 1994 and The Galerie Lelong in Paris

References[link]

• Adams, Laurie Schneider, Ed. A History of Western Art" Third Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2001.
• Alan Moore and Marc Miller, eds., ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery (Collaborative Projects, NY, 1985).

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• The Pace Gallery
• Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBS series Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century (2003)
• Interview with Kiki Smith
• Museum of Biblical Art - Biblical Art in a Secular Century: Selections, 1896-1993 featuring Kiki Smith Processional Crucifix from Saint Peter's Church, New York, NY
• 'Kiki Smith video interview'
• Museum of Modern Art Kiki Smith exhibition
• Jewel An excerpt of Smith's 1997 film in the AVI format
• Heyoka magazine Interview with John Lekay
• Kiki Smith: "Life Wants to Live" (1:33) published at Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
• Kiki Smith at sculpture.org.uk

Martin Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an African American sculptor. He works in media including wood, stone, tar, and wire,^[1] and his work is a union of minimalism and traditional crafts.

Life[link]

Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., and he spent his youth studying practical crafts, learning how to build guitars and furniture.^{[citation needed]} He received a B.A. from The Catholic University of America in 1963 and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone^[2] from 1964 to 1966. In the late 1960s, he studied printmaking in Sweden and assisted a master cabinet-maker.^[1] He entered the Yale University graduate sculpture program in 1968.^[1] In 1978, Puryear moved to Chicago, where he lived for 12 years. It was during this time that he gained international recognition.^[3]

His first solo exhibition was held in the late 1970s at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.^[1] In the 1980s he participated in two Whitney Biennials and received a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[1] He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989.^[1]

In 2003, he served on the Jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition.^{[citation needed]}

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presented a 30-year survey of Puryear's work in 2008-2009.^[4] The presentation included "a special installation in the Haas Atrium including Ladder for Booker T. Washington (1996), made from a 36-foot-long split sapling, and Ad Astra (2007), a 63-foot-tall work that rises to the museum's fifth-floor bridge."^[5]

Work[link]

Martin Puryear’s work is the product of much thought, assembled in a minimalist, simple design. Two of his main works are Sanctuary and Box and Pole. The latter’s simplicity is evident just by analyzing its simple title. Box and Pole comprises a box on the ground with a hundred foot pole jutting upwards to the sky, therefore symbolizing our position on earth^{[citation needed]}. We are superior to some things (the box), yet inferior to others (higher spiritual powers)^[who?]. He is clearly a modern sculptor, but in works such as Sanctuary he uses primitive techniques to create his final work. Sanctuary is basically a stick connecting a box that anchors what is on the other end of the stick, a wheel. The wheel can move, but its movement is restricted, symbolic of human life. His work contributes to society as a whole as it teaches us many moral lessons such as the two mentioned.

Puryear uses common materials such as wood, tar, wire and various metals to create forms that reference traditional crafts and building methods and, at the same time, formalist sculpture. Puryear’s work is often associated with Minimalism, although the artist himself rejects the minimalist ideal of complete objectivity and non-referentiality. Of minimalism he once said, “I looked at it, I tasted it, and I spat it out.”^[6]

His works are held in the collections of the Guggenheim,^[7] Museum of Modern Art,^[8] Corcoran Gallery of Art,^[9] Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,^[10] The National Gallery of Art, Walker Art Center,^[11] Art Institute of Chicago^[12] and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Box and Pole[link]

Box and Pole is an abstract sculpture by American sculptor Martin Puryear. The wood that Box and Pole is made from is supposed to contrast with the abstractness of the sculpture's form. The box was made four feet tall so that the average person can look over it, making them feel superior. However, the 100 foot pole towering over the box gives off an unreachable feeling. This balances out the feeling of superiority. I wouldn’t say that there is movement, but rather that the audience is “stuck” in a parallel universe between that which he is better than (most of nature) and lesser than (higher powers)^[who?]. When looking down on the box one gets a darker image that is less distorted than when you look up at the pole that is brighter due to the sun, yet more distorted due to its 100 ft distance. So in reality, the box is much clearer than the pole, as nature is much clearer to us than the spiritual God^{[citation needed]}.

Sanctuary[link]

This wooden sculpture was made in 1982. It is mounted on the wall and was made from pine, maple, and cherry. It is an open box with two thick branches connected to it. The branches extend in a downward motion connecting to the axle of a wheel. Sanctuary relies on both the wall and the floor for support. It is because of this characteristic that the sculpture symbolizes stability and mobility^[who?]. The box is solid and firmly on the wall, while the wheel is free to rotate on the floor. Yet the wheel cannot go very far because of the box that is securing it.

Puryear's minimalistic ideals come into play here as the wheel is made out of pure wood and the sticks connecting the box and the wheel are tree branches, not even cut. He used absolutely no technology in the creation of this work of art, so it is safe to say that cavemen thousands of years ago could have created this same work, just devoid of the same thought process. It is so primitive that he chooses to make the wheel completely solid, it lacks such basic parts as spokes. Puryear says that Sanctuary is like many of his other works, they deal with "mobility and a kind of escapism, of survival through flight."^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Criticism, Catalogues, Monographs[link]

Danto, Arthur. "Martin Puryear, or the Quandaries of Craftsmanship" in Emobodied Meanings: Critical Essays and Aesthetic Meditations. New York: Farrar Strauss Grioux, 1994.

External links[link]

• Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBS series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 2 (2003).
• "Notable Former Volunteers / Arts and Literature". Peace Corps official site. Accessed 5 January 2007.
• David Levi-Strauss interview with Martin Puryear from Brooklyn Rail, November 2007
• Roberta Smith's article in the NYT, Nov. 2, 2007
• Tilted Ash, Article by Arthur C. Danto, December 2007
• Martin Puryear at McKee Gallery Martin Puryear at McKee Gallery, New York
• Martin Puryear retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2008–2009