ArtBohemia

"L'Estampe en France: Thirty-four Young Printmakers" provides an opportunity for the art-loving public of the nation's capital to appreciate the work of contemporary French artists committed to printmaking.
In a city like Washington, where the presence of France is so strongfrom the urban plan of the city itself to the collections in museums on the Mallit is particularly appropriate for the Cultural Center to present an exhibition honoring France and the city of Paris on occasion of the IDB's Annual Meeting there in March of this year. The goal is to share with the Washington audience a little known facet of contemporary French art.
Paris today remains the world's artistic center for printmaking, the place where all itsdiverse techniques are practiced by artists of all persuasions. More than 40 professional workshops in Paris alonesome of them dating back three generationsare constantly producing images that range from traditional techniques such as drypoint and etching to experimental approaches in the technological fields of silkscreen and lithography. Some artists are working in even more advanced electronic venues such as computer-generated graphics. Many internationally renowned artistsincluding a roster of outstanding Latin Americans such as Cuevas, Seguí and Moraleshave developed their graphic work in France.
From all of these angles, this exhibition fits the main theme of the IDB agenda for the 1999 Annual Meeting: Development and Culture. The Cultural Center plans to make this exhibit of printmaking techniques a traveling showcase throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States in the months to come. We hope the exhibit will contribute to further renewing interest in the possibilities that printmaking offers to the creative artistic spirit, and to demonstrating that tradition can always be incorporated into the direction a society takes toward establishing its identity and its future.
A Tradition of Innovation
The contributions of France to the development of the arts are not only known across the globe; they are basic elements of world culture. In the plastic realm, so wide is their variety and so great has been their impact that it is virtually impossible to summarize them.
The graphic arts have a tradition of long standing in France. A still older tradition in French art, however, is a permanent openness to innovation and a quickness to identify forms of expression that, though not necessarily French in origin, require a favorable environment for development. The present exhibit, then, should lead the viewer to reflect on the nature, meaning and function of the graphic arts.
Without denying the didactic possibilities of printmaking, one must also keep in mind that it enables the artist to establish a dialogue with a broader public than does art that exists in but a single example. As an object of investment, the latter may be more attractive to the collector and the dealer. But by their nature, both the artist and his creation require an extended public of admirers.
Paris continues to maintain its leadership as a world capital of art, and within that the graphic arts are practiced with admirable intensityor better still, dedication. It would be difficult to find another city with such a large number of printmaking establishments equipped to turn out works in every conceivable technique. Among them are shops that use manual labor of a type that has rendered them all but obsoletelithography based on the actual use of stone, drypoint and stencil, for example. Thanks to such establishments, however, those techniques live on and display a vitality equal to the latest advances in computer-produced imagery.
Innovation does not exist in a vacuum; it must spring from a base, and that base is tradition. In turn, it is innovation that gives life and growth to tradition. The cycle is never-ending, but it takes the form not of a closed circle, where the beginning cannot be distinguished from the end, but of a constantly expanding, outward-growing spiral. The number and quality of the artists included in this exhibit give ample proof that the French graphic tradition today is vigorous on all fronts, from the purely technical to the conceptual realm and the area of social commentary. And the exhibit more than refutes the view, taken by many, that the print is a minor art form. The contrary could not be more clearly evident.

The Exhibition
This exhibit presents, for the first time in Washington, thirty-four French artists currently active in the field of graphic arts. None is older than 40, and nearly all are primarily printmakers. The intent of the exhibit is to offer a broad panorama of contemporary printmaking by the new generation of French artists based in Paris.
All the works in this exhibit were executed and printed in specialized workshops, where master printers and support personnel lent the artists their full technical collaboration. This system of work is inherent in the art of printmaking, but it is of particular importance to the French tradition. Parisian printmakers are recognized as being among the world's best. They work not only for local artists, but also for a broad range of artists from other countries, among them such Latin American and Caribbean figures of past and present as Wifredo Lam (Cuba), Roberto Matta (Chile), Rufino Tamayo, José Luis Cuevas and Francisco Toledo (Mexico), Antonio Seguí (Argentina), Armando Morales (Nicaragua), and Fernando Botero (Colombia).

The Graphic Tradition in France
One of the earliest figures in French graphic art was the metal engraver Jean Gourmont, active in the first decades of the 16th century. His work reflects the influence of Italian Renaissance artists and the "Little Masters" of Germany. Thanks to the German invention of lithography by Aloys Senefelder (1796), the graphic arts acquired great popularity in France following the revolution and took on characteristics peculiar to the country. The publication of Goya's first lithographs in 1826, during the artist's exile from Spain, showed that the technique had possibilities previously unrealized by other painters. Throughout the 19th century, figures such as Eugène Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, Odilon Redon, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were to practice printmaking of both experimental and artistic character (and in the case of Daumier, for purposes of humor and social commentary).
Lithography acquired unheard-of popularity. It modernized the technique of producing unlimited numbers of prints, further revolutionized later with the invention of photolithography. Lithography was not, however, the sole means of reproduction to which artists gave attention. More traditional techniques continued to be practiced. Gustave Doré, for example, was responsible for a monumental uvre of metal engraving in his illustrations for great works of literature such as Cervantes' Don Quixote, Milton´s Paradise Lost, and Dante´s Divine Comedy.
The modern French tradition in the art of printmaking is represented in particular in this exhibit by the presence of three workshops whose prestigious histories include collaboration with artists of the category of Matisse, Miró, Picasso, Léger, Braque and Cocteau. Editions Atelier Clot has specialized in lithography since 1896. Atelier Jacomet was founded in 1910 by Daniel Jacomet, and today is in the hands of his grandsons. It specializes in stencil (pouchoir), the oldest technique of multicolor reproduction. While none of its work is represented in the present exhibit, its director, Dominique Jacomet, provided liaison with the other workshops. Atelier Pons, founded in 1938 by the painter and lithographer Jean Pons, specializes in limited editions produced by the traditional method using prepared stone and a hand press rather than the metal plate and mechanical press in more common use today.
Lithography maintained its prominence even in the years immediately following World War II, when artists such as the members of the COBRA group and the lyric abstractionists were among its practitioners. There is no denying that during the two decades that followed, however, silkscreen came to enjoy great popularity, in part because of trends of the postwar period. This was particularly true in the developing countries of the Western Hemisphere, owing to the ease with which the process could be adapted to local needs. Silkscreen was produced in greatest volume, however, in industrialized countries such as France, where it also underwent considerable technical refinement.
The popularity of silkscreen, with its figurative pop photo montages and optical compositions, was seen not only in commercial galleries and museums of contemporary art but also in daily lifewitness the everyday T-shirt and metallic outfits reminiscent of Paco Rabanne. A large new social class was emerging, barely cultured and with relatively comfortable buying power, toward which industrial production of disposable consumer goods with ephemeral value was directed en masse. Living rooms and discotheques alike were converted into psychedelic environments dominated by the colors and designs of advertising and optical illusionsclear evidence of the turn in public taste.
Toward the end of the decade of the seventies, it became evident that, contrary to what was once believed, this trend could be reversed. Artistspainters in particularreturned to works centered on the human figure, rich in effects, unusual in their lyric violence. For whatever reason, graphic art took a pictorial direction opposite that of commercial graphic design. A need was felt to broaden the scope of the multicopy image, and there was a renewed desire to take up more traditional means of expression with works crafted by hand that imparted a more personal touch to preparation of the printing plate and the printing process. In France, the establishment of numerous workshops was a clear sign of fresh interest in the graphic arts in the country's contemporary art scene.
France's longstanding collaborative tradition in graphic arts was officially recognized as part of celebrations marking Print Month in Paris in 1998. An official declaration by the Department of the Secretary of State for Small Business, Trade and Crafts noted that cooperation by creative artists and master craftsmen in workshops exemplifies the ever closer relationship between skills characteristic of the artistic professions. "The aim of this Department," the declaration stated, "is to accompany these professions in their continuing enrichment of that heritage through original creation of uncommon merit." present-day society, and to have developed new capacities for artistic perception. The computer may provide a new means of creating virtual reality, but even this new technological medium does not permit dispensing with the artist.
Scope of the Graphic Image
There are two basic and inseparable elements in graphic work: manual dexterity on the part of the artist, either innate or acquired through training, and teamwork by craftsmen skilled in the process of reproducing images.
If a thousand printmakers were asked why they had chosen that type of artistic expression, they might give as many different answers. Nevertheless, all will have been driven by the desire to produce multiple copies of the same image, since this permits their work to be seen in several places at the same time. More specifically, they can reach out to a far wider audience with a real, as opposed to virtual, image. Finally, printmaking permits more than one member of that audience to possess his or her originalthough numbered and not uniquework of art.
In terms of sheer numbers, then, the value of printmaking is easily understood. The world population today stands at more than four billion, and we live in an era when the artist must compete with the mass media for the attention of a public ever more dependent on technology for communication. The concept of time as a production unit increasingly has brought into disrepute the idea that idle time can be important to the powers of imagination and creativity. The average amount of time spent by visitors to art museums does not exceed 12 seconds per work of art.
It is precisely for this public, overwhelmed by daily tasks and as such often limited in attention span, that prints may represent an opportunity to enter into communication with a work of art, to possess it at relatively low cost, and to give it a home. From such a beginning, the individual may be able to develop a sensibility and imagination about art that might be difficult to otherwise develop based on such limited direct contact with the works themselves.
Given its relative ease of reproduction, its extraordinary multiplier effect, and its capacity for reaching the public, it is not surprising that the print has been used to serve purposes as diverse as social criticism (Goya), humor (Honoré Daumier), political satire (José Guadalupe Posada), and elegant illustration (Gustave Doré). It has even been used for the propagation of faithFlemish engravings were used aggressively in the evangelization of the Americas. In modern times, prints have become a vehicle for the expression of ideas and positions, and have developed a popular iconography of immediate public recognitionall of which at times has caused problems for those associated with print production, given the economic and social realities of our day.
Approach to the Exhibit
For reasons inherent in its nature, this exhibit was not conceived in thematic terms or along lines of visual preference that might otherwise have imparted a more cohesive aspect to the whole. The exhibit draws its dynamic force from the juxtaposition of dissimilar developments within a single field, namely, graphics. From the viewpoint of style, the position taken is neutral. The lack of definition betokens the youth of the artists and the freedom of their actions, inclinations and tastes.
Although one may note an apparent preference of the artists for lithography, the variety of techniques representedetching, drypoint, lithography, carborundum, silkscreen, aquatint, woodcut and computeris such that one cannot speak in overly general terms. All the techniques are valid as means of expression and fields for experimentation.
Neither can one speak of any perceptible new trend characteristic of visual expression. The artists participating in this exhibit seem more disposed to experience the visual than to experiment with it.
In fact, it is notable that there is little in this exhibit of the pop, optical and kinetic art so popular in Paris and elsewhere in the world only a few decades ago.
As for abstraction, it seems to have returned to the scale on which it was originally conceived in France. This regression has been aided by the limitations implicit in printmaking. Figuration, whether expressionistic or free, continues admirably timeless, even when placed at the service of conceptual art, which, despite its capacity for avant-garde reinvention, has not succeeded by itself in relating to the public the realities or themes it seeks to question.
All these types of expression have claimed to draw attention to the problems and realities of present-day society, and to have developed new capacities for artistic perception. The computer may provide a new means of creating virtual reality, but even this new technological medium does not permit dispensing with the artist.
THE IMAGE PROBLEM
As a vehicle of expression, the print is closely linked to the dissemination of liberal ideas. It is versatile, it is produced by craftsmen, and virtually limitless editions are possible at very low cost. Ever since its first appearance, the print has afforded new roles for the reproduced image and new functions for art.
Glorious precursors of the print of today can be found in the wood engraving practiced by Italians as early as the 13th century and in the first examples of work in metal executed by anonymous Germans toward the end of the 15th century. Ever since, the qualities inherent in such techniques and the economic advantages of multiple copies have opened new fields for development, transforming graphic practices and leading to the opening of public discussion of the function and value of prints.
The argument that led artists of the 1950s and 1960s to question the social validity of the unique work of art was responsible in part for the boom in serial art during that period. The idea was to make the artistic image available to everyone to enjoy and possible to discard once it had been "used."
Ever since the 19th century, the popular character of the print has given rise to an image problem for the graphic arts. Opinion as to its value has been divided between those inspired by certain economic and social views and those whose views are of a more intellectual and artistic nature. Most of contemporary society is still unable to distinguish between what is cheap and that which, though low in cost, is not without significance. Ill-informed and uncaring, the public assumes that if something is costly, it must be good and beautifulan idea that would be anathema to Plato or Aristotle.
Despite all that has been said in our century about serving the interests of the majority, when it comes to the art trade, it seems ironic that the print continues to be looked down upon. As a matter of supply and demand, it does not possess the quality of uniqueness that in time could cause its market value to rise. And egalitarianism notwithstanding, the printat once spurned and glorious, as alwaysdoes not possess the prestige associated with an object that only the privileged can afford.
The Artists and Their Works
Some of the works included in this exhibit deal with entirely conventional themes, as with the aquatints of Pascal Andrault, the etchings of Catherine Keun, and the lithographs of Catherine Chaux. Andrault and Chaux demonstrate an interest in landscape, while Keun treats the human figure. None is particularly concerned with description; they are moved rather by the desire to articulate in an individual manner the relationship between image, theme and technique. Other participants, such as Nathalie Grenier, Emmanuelle Renard and Monique Tello, find in carborundum a medium of sufficient power to sustain images of great emotional charge.
Large format silkscreen is admirably suited to the images produced by Kriki, which resemble three-dimensional puzzles. Paul Raguenes, François Boisrond, Hervé Di Rosa, and Rémi Blanchard practice "free figuration" in lithograph or silkscreen with the young energy suggested by the style, and with as much ease as if working on large scale canvas.
Figuration persists, betraying reminiscences of varying provenance, but without subjection to any determined style, in the works of Frédéric Mary (who leaps with ease from figuration to abstraction), Didier Hagège, Annick Claudé, Olivier Fanget, and Frédérique Danse.
The same might also be said of works in the vein of lyric abstraction, such as those of Emmanuelle Aussedat and Anne Turlais, or the expressionistic compositions of Jean-François Péneau. Dreams inspire the work of Marc "Triton" Brémont. Yves Chaudouët and Louis Marie Catta evidence ecological concerns, and humanism is reflected in the compositions of Vincent Busson and Nunzio d´Angerio.
Color and form are fundamental elements in the images produced by Bernard Filippi, Gil Griffoux, Valérie Crausaz and Laurence Lépron; aside from this, however, the four have little in common. Works of more intellectual intent, although this does not outweigh the visual aspect, are those of Joël Leick, Frédérique Lucien, Didier Mencoboni, Françoise Pétrovitch, and Denis Briand. And the finishing touch to this display of works of unabashedly dissimilar intent is lent by the techno-urban compositions of Miguel Chevalier.

Glossary
Printing techniques can be divided today into two groups. The first is that of flat techniques, in which the image appears on paper without alteration of the surface. These include stencil, lithography and silkscreen. The second group is that of relief techniques. As the name indicates, in this case the image stands forth on the paper in relief, either high or low, as a result of the pressure exerted on the matrix plate by the rollers of the press in passing over the engraving. This group includes etching, aquatint and drypoint.
There are two basic requirements for a print to be considered an original. First, the matrix containing the image, whatever the material, must have been executed by the artist, either alone or with the help of assistants. The second is that the editionthe number of copies run off from the matrixmust be limited in number and each copy must be signed and numbered by the artist.
A description of the principal techniques follows. Naturally, many of them may be combined to produce varying effects. There are still other techniques as well, such as mezzotint, paper stencil and inkless relief, but in one way or another, all are interrelated.
Aquatint: A process similar to etching, but a microscopic crackle is engraved in the plate permitting delicate shadings, monochromatic or polychromatic, depending on the inks used, which produce effects reminiscent of the transparencies of water color.
Carborundum: The principle involved is that of etching, but the plate used is acetate rather than metal.
Drypoint: The principle is that of traditional metal engraving. The artist must be sure and precise in drawing, for no type of correction is possible. The image on the plate is produced solely with the engraving tool, under the pressure of the hand. The depth of the cut is therefore not great. Under the pressure of the press, after a few impressions, the line loses its velvety quality.
Engraving: The name traditionally given to the technique in which the image is executed on a metal plate or block of wood using needle-like metallic burins or gravers. A mechanical press is required for printing. Depending on the ground material used, the product will be called either a metal or a wood engraving. The image produced is usually of a delicate nature.
Etching: The principle is the same as that of metal engraving, but acid is used to corrode the plate in the places where the image has been drawn. Printing requires a roller press. Before the drawing is made, the plate is covered with a varnish that is removed by the sharp tool with which the sketch is made. Acid penetrates these areas alone. The plate is inked and wiped, leaving ink only in the engraved areas. When the plate and paper pass through the press, the paper enters into the etched areas, producing a slightly raised line. Acid etching permits reworking the plate; areas deemed satisfactory can be protected with varnish while other areas undergo modification.
Linoleum block: The technique is the same as that employed in woodcut, but linoleum substitutes for wood. As in the case of woodcut, printing may be carried out in a number of colors, programmed to accompany the advance made in engraving.
Photo silkscreen: The technique is the same as for silkscreen, but instead of the plastic film, a photo-sensitive emulsion is used, as in the case of photography. When the emulsion dries and the silk is washed, only the areas in which the negative did not take remain covered.
Silkscreen: The process is the same as that of stencil, but the technique is more refined. The image is cut out of a plastic film that is applied to specially prepared silk placed on a stretcher. The stretcher with the silk covered by plastic is placed on the paper and the ink is pressed through with a squeegee. The ink passes through the areas of silk not covered by plastic, transferring the image to the paper.
Stencil: The image is sketched on cardboard, which is then cut to produce a stencil. The stencil is placed on the paper that is to contain the image. The cut-out areas are then colored with a small brush. Each color requires its own stencil. When this technique is used, the edition will never be completely uniform. At times, advantage is taken of this to lend greater individuality to each of the reproduced images. Stencil may be used to produce either positive or negative images.
Woodcut: Engraving executed on a block of wood using gouges of different gauge and V-tools. The background is cut out, leaving in relief the area that is to be printed. Printing is generally done by hand. The paper is placed on top of the inked or colored block and pressure is exerted with a baren (a cushioned hand tool). The pressure determines the intensity of the image. At times a press is used, similar to the flatbed press employed in typography.

Marie Hélène Gatto, Curator
Department of Prints and Photography
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
France, they say, cultivates paradoxes. Diverse and complex, French printmaking is no exception to this rule, embracing contradictions of every sort. Contemporary printmaking is especially paradoxical because it stands in contrast to both the nature and the history of this technique. Although prints are by nature reproducible and their function is to reach a broad audience, only a few knowledgeable enthusiasts in France seem to appreciate them. In a country where printmaking has a long history, most people are unfamiliar with the traditional techniques. And even though such renowned artists as Picasso, Gauguin and Matisse lent their talents to this art form, prints have long been absent from museum walls. Rarely do exhibitions display both paintings and prints without the artist expressly requesting itJean-Michel Albarola is one example. Still, anyone with enough curiosity will discover the creative and innovative aspects of printmaking, which draws on centuries-old traditions while at the same time being constantly renewed.
The art of printmaking in Franceand, more broadly, in Europedates to the late 14th century, when the oldest known Western matrix, the Portat Woodcut found in Mâcon, is believed to have been produced. The prints circulating at the time, mostly woodcuts, were pictures in the popular sense of the word. They included pious images lining the interior of pilgrimage boxes, playing cards, almanacs, and book illustrations. Copperplate (line) engraving, developed by goldsmiths, came next. The prints of the Maître of playing cards, depicting the lords and ladies of the court, were aimed at a more refined audience.
Obviously, religion and its panoply of saints remained the most abundantly illustrated of subjects. In much the same way, printmaking techniques would soon be used to reproduce paintings, and the enormous numbers of copies produced gave paintings an exposure that was previously unimaginable. Although Marc-Antoine Raimondi was the first to make the printing of reproductions both a profession and an art, generations of printmakers (Tardieu, Audran and Drevet, among others) from the 16th through the 18th centuries would follow and pass on the traditions of this distinguished profession. Far from confining itself to the customary subjects of paintinghistory, portraiture, mythologyprintmaking invaded every field of knowledge, including architectural plans, treatises on geometry and perspective, anatomical, zoological and botanical plates, and geographic maps and topographical views. Heedless of protocol, prints were equally adept at portraying events large and small: street scenes and royal celebrations, brawls and famous battles. All of the greatest printmakers, from Callot to Goya, treated these subjects in turn. A unique and unusual collection because it came into being through copyright registration, the Department of Prints and Photography of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with its 11 million prints, reflects the variety and number of fields encompassed by printmaking over the centuries.
Because it can reach a wide audience quickly and anonymously, printmaking is an effective political and satirical weapon, as demonstrated by its extensive use during the French Revolution. New impetus to the tradition of popular prints came during the 19th century, which saw the invention of lithography and the rise of the press. Represented in the newspapers by Daumier's daily illustrations of events, printmaking also took over the city walls, plastering them with color posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. In the latter half of the 19th century, however, the invention and advance of photomechanical reproduction processes vied strongly with printmaking. Because of their faithfulness to the original, photography and photoengraving made extremely precise illustration possible. Printmaking, losing much of its documentary appeal, focused once more on artistic aims and became the province of bibliophiles and lovers of contemporary art. An entire market developed for fine prints, alive to such elements as printing and paper quality. At the same time, printmakers became painter-engravers.
Printmaking in the 20th century has been a part of every artistic movement from the cubism of Braque and Picasso to the expressionism of Vlaminck, from the experiments of Dubuffet to the geometric abstraction of Aurélie Nemours and the Paris school with Soulages, not to mention pop art. In the 1960s, printmaking strived for material effects, rivaling painting.