A Buyer's Guide to Prints

JACKET 170 x 240mm for 150gsm Munken Print White Vol 15 (225mic) - 80 pages

A B U Y E R’S G U I D E TO P R I N TS H E L E N ROSS LY N

£9.95 ISBN 978-1-912520-08-4

A Buyer’s Guide to Prints H E L E N ROSS LY N

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This straight-talking guide is the perfect companion for anyone interested in buying or collecting prints, whether Old Master or contemporary. Helen Rosslyn, a print specialist and Director of the London Original Print Fair, provides her expert advice, incorporating tips from artists, print dealers, paper conservators and picture framers. With an explanation of printmaking techniques, a history of printmaking and a comprehensive glossary, this book answers all the questions a prospective buyer may have.

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Contents

7 Introduction 9 Printmaking techniques Woodcut 10 Linocut 12 Wood engraving 14 Engraving 16 Etching 18 Aquatint 20 Carborundum 22 Drypoint 24 Mezzotint 26 Softground etching 28 Lithograph 30 Screenprint 32 Monotype 34 Photomechanical and digital processes 36

39 A brief history of printmaking 49 Buying prints Building a collection 50 How to start 52 Old Master prints 56 Cataloguing 58 Frequently asked questions 60 Looking after prints 64

70 How the print world works 75 Glossary of technical terms 78 Credits 80 Acknowledgements

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Introduction

Over thirty years of running the London Original Print Fair I have lost count of the number of times I have heard the words: ‘I don’t buy prints – I buy originals.’

Yet prints and originals can be one and the same. Many of our bestknown images, by some of the world’s best-known artists, Dürer’s Rhinoceros or Munch’s Scream for example, are in fact prints, no less ‘original’ than paintings or drawings.

An original print is simply an image produced by a process which allows it to be printed from one surface onto another, such as etching or engraving onto a metal plate, drawing onto a lithographic stone, or cutting into a wooden block. The actual work the artist has produced is the print, the end product of this creative process, which has the advantage of making art accessible to many more people.

Many artists discover a whole range of possibilities in printmaking which don’t exist in other media – the interaction between ink and paper when passed through a press; the close collaboration with a master printer; the ability to create different variants of the same image – and for this reason some of the world’s best-known artists were passionate printmakers, from Rembrandt to Goya to Picasso.

But people are often put off by print terminology and think that the

print market is complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Armed with a basic knowledge, new buyers will find that the print market is relatively straightforward. Because prints exist in editions, it is comparatively easy to track past prices and make comparisons between different impressions of an image.

So the aim of this ‘Buyer’s Guide’ is to give a brief explanation of the techniques, terms and traditions of printmaking and equip the potential collector with the confidence to start buying. heleN ROSSlYN Director, The London Original Print Fair

opposite This detail of Christopher Le Brun’s large woodcut Seria Ludo I illustrates the painterly potential of prints: ‘Managing by hand all the stages of cutting, inking and finally printing with spoon and baren keeps me in touch with the print for as long as possible. Each proof should have a subtly variable outcome that feels like a discovery.’ (See page 71.)

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I N TAG L I O P R I N T I N G

Softground etching Softground etchings were often almost indistinguishable from drawings, as seen in William Daniell’s softground etching (right), after George Dance’s portrait of Francis Milner Newton (left). The etching is in reverse as it has been printed from a copper plate.

An etching produced by drawing onto a piece of paper, placed on top of a plate prepared with a soft etching ground. The pressure of the pencil causes the etching ground to stick to the paper which is then peeled away, leaving a soft line very similar to that

of a crayon. The plate is immersed in an acid bath and printed as with an etching.

The technique was widely used in the 18th century to recreate the effect of a crayon drawing.

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PLANOGRAPHIC PRINTING

Lithograph

Lithography is a chemical process based on the fact that water and grease repel each other.

Traditionally the design is drawn with a greasy crayon onto a lithographic stone, hence the name, from the Greek ‘lithos’ meaning stone. The stone is dampened with water, which is repelled by the crayon. It is then inked with a grease-based ink, which is repelled by the water and adheres only to the areas covered by the greasy crayon. A sheet of paper is placed on top of it and the two are passed through the press together, so that the design transfers directly onto the paper.

above A lithographic test stone prepared with a drawing by Paula Rego right Lithography can capture the same effect as a charcoal drawing, as in Paul Nash’s 1918 lithograph Marching at Night.

‘I turn to etching and lithography with a sense of exuberance and relief. In printmaking you can give your imagination full range and see the results almost immediately.’ paula rego

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