Silkscreen

Silkscreen is another name for the screenprinting technique, a printmaking process in which an ink-blocking stencil is applied to a screen, allowing ink that is wiped across the screen to selectively pass through to a printing surface. Before the development of synthetic materials, silk was used as the screen material, giving this process the name silkscreen. Originally used for commercial purposes in the early 20th century, the technique would be termed “serigraphy” in the 1940s to differentiate its use for fine art. Artists of the 1960s, notably Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, incorporated screenprinted images from mass media into their works, while in Europe, artists like Alain Jacquet and Gerd Winner took advantage of the unique ability of the medium to produce large-scale prints.