World Printmakers Launches “Print Universe,” a New Social Network and Resource Site for Print People Everywhere
“Where printmakers worldwide can get their heads together…”
Print Universe, the new social network for fine-art print people, has joined the family of World Printmakers sites and resources for the fine-art-print community. Print Universe, online in beta version since the first of August, offers fine-art-print people display areas for images and videos, forums for opinions and discussion, a very complete tool for announcing events, another for inviting new members, and a blog for every member, among other features.
Since the new network has had an enthusiastic reception among the beta users, who are maintaining high levels of participation, we have decided to present Print Universe in society.
We would like to invite all members and readers of Print Workshop Central to have a look at this new network, to become members (just click on “Join Up” at the upper right of the main page), and to invite their printmaker and print lover friends to join, too. We think you’ll find it interesting, rewarding and fun. It’s also free.
Impetuous Young Printmaker Wonders Where to Go with Paris?
This is a Plea for a Press
Mark Andrew Webber is the industrious young British printmaker who recently created a short animated video made up of nearly 300 linocuts. He has also linocut his way through maps of four of his favorite cities. His last one, Paris, is so ambitious (image size: 150×180 cm.) that he can’t find a press big enough to print it on. This note is a plea to the Print Workshop Central experts for information leading to a press large enough to do the job. I’d like to help this young man if we can. He’s creative and hard working enough to deserve it, I think.
You can see more photographs of the almost-finished Paris linocut on this Flickr display: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markandrewwebber/
Or Webber’s interview on World Printmakers: http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/linomation.htm
Or his own website: http://www.markandrewwebber.com/
Why didn’t Webber think beforehand about the press required to print his giant linocut? Didn’t you ever build a boat too big to get out of the garage?
Dalí at Sea – Our Old Friend Salvador is Back, with Friends
“The surreal case of Dali’s art and the squandered legacy” from today’s Independent.
What ever happened to “caveat emptor?”
“Who will say that Hockney’s (digital) prints are not ‘original’ prints?” Not us, certainly.
Print Workshop Central received another interesting comment from Julia Matcham recently and I think it’s important enough to bring out to the first page and address it. Here’s Julia’s comment:
“I just thought I would draw people’s attention to the fact that David Hockney has just had an exhibition in London of inkjet prints entirely drawn into the computer using a graphics pad (as I do these days). As he says in the introduction to his catalogue (Annely Juda Gallery) ‘the computer is just a tool’. It is as good as you are.
“Autumn Leaves” by David Hockney
Who will say that Hockney’s prints are not ‘original prints’? I think the hand-print brigade are on a sticky wicket here! Not that I don’t appreciate that there are differences; just that definitions other than ‘ this print does not exist in any other form’ are out-of-date.”
Art Reproducers Bite Back
British printmaker, Julia Matcham, sent us this link the other day and it gave me a shiver. Though it’s old news–it dates from 1984–it could very well be a portent of things to come. The article in question, written by London arts lawyer and activist, Henry Lydiate, tells the story of what happened in Windsor, Ontario, when an art-reproductions tempest in a municipal-museum teapot got out of hand.
Here’s the link to the story: http://www.artquest.org.uk/artlaw/contracts/caveat-emptor.htm.
A Surprise Visitor from London’s Art Workers Guild
The phone rang the other morning and it was Monica Grose-Hodge from the Art Workers Guild in London. She wasn’t in London, though; she was here in Granada doing three days of interviews with local artists and craftspeople. She found me through my Granada Studio Visits display at her hotel, and wanted to know if she could come out for a visit and an interview. Yes, of course. Read the rest of this entry »
“Life’s Too Short for Nuance” – New Etcher’s Book with Nice Bite
When was the last time we had the satisfaction of discovering an authentic new voice? This is one of them. And it comes accompanied by a withering eye and a brilliant hand. Life’s Too Short for Nuance, Louis Netter’s new book of satirical drawings, surprises and delights us with a combination of bluntly honest comment and ruggedly refined acid-etched illustrations. I use the term “acid etched” advisedly, as Netter’s images are not only figuratively corrosive, they’re actually acid etchings.
After decades of seeing innocent Americans being cynically manipulated, dumbed down, and distracted by politicians, preachers, the military-industrial complex and the mass media on behalf of the same old vested interests, it’s refreshing to come across a young man with a clean, uncomplicated vision, the talent to express it and, most importantly, the courage to publish it. Read the rest of this entry »
A Question About Curwen Studio
We received an emailed invitation this morning from the Curwen Studio to visit their stand at the Cambridgeshire Art Fair in June, and I was prompted to visit their website. After spending a quarter of an hour browsing around the site I couldn’t figure out what these people make. Their terminology is so garbled (intentionally so, it seems) that it’s difficult to discern exactly what they’re up to. Do they make hand-pulled fine-art prints? Do they make reproductions? Do they make both? Could anybody clear this up for me?
Studio Survey I – Results
Here at Last
Here, at last, are the results of Print Workshop Central’s Studio Survey I. In all, 23 studios replied to the questionnaire, a mediocre turnout at best. Print studios are busy, it seems. After asking respondents to identify themselves, we invited them to tell us about the services their studios provided. No surprises here. The most generalized services are workshops/classes. And most studios offer a variety of other print-related services. The “other” comment at the end is “press repair.” Nice service. Here’s the breakdown.
MoMA’s Delightful What-Is-a-Print Animation
I had forgotten about this wonderful little animation of printmaking techniques published by the MoMA a few years ago, but Ferenc Keresi reminded me of it this morning when I followed a link from his email announcing next spring’s ex libris exhibition in Debrecen (Hungary). Here are Ferenc’s ex libris site and his blog: www.exlibris.lap.hu and www.keresi.blog.hu. Some of you may want to participate in this Hungarian exhibit.
P.S. And if you’re in NY, don’t miss the smashing Ensor show, on at the MoMA until September 21, 2009.
