Editor's Choice: Print Picks

The prints in this exhibition span from the 17th century through today and include four kinds of prints: lithograph, screenprint, etching and acquatint. It is interesting to note the progressive development of each media over the past few centuries in order to fit the taste of our changing world.

In the oldest print we have her at Heather James, an etching called “The Good Samaritan” by Rembrandt in 1633, there is no color and the scene is very realistic. In “L’exile vert” by Miro in 1969, he adds acquatint to his etching in order to have the ability to create etchings with color.

In 1895, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec made the lithograph “May Belfort” using only four colors, but by the mid-20th century other artist like Fernand Leger, Georges Braque, and Marc Chagall were using up to twenty colors or more for one lithograph. Color became an important aspect of print making during the 20th century and new colors were developed in order to have more vibrant imagery. We can see this come full circle in Ed Ruscha’s lithograph, “Wall Rocket” from 2013.

In the 1960’s, Andy Warhol popularized screen-printing, which gave artists even more freedom with the amount and the variations of colors used. The screen print called “James” by Chuck Close uses 178 colors. Many more than the four color lithograph by Toulouse Lautrec in 1895!