Printmaking in 19th-century America was still provincial and did not produce any artist comparable to the European masters. The colour engravings of flora and fauna executed by the naturalist John James Audubon constitute a significant body of work, however.
In Mexico, the popular illustrator José Guadalupe Posada produced thousands of woodcuts and lead cuts for newspapers in a completely original style—a mixture of sophistication and the naïveté of popular art. His work had a substantial influence on the young Mexican revolutionary art movement.
Oaxacan Calavera (or Oaxacan Skull), print on white fabric by José Guadalupe Posada, c. 1910. 21.3 × 33.8 cm.Caroline and Erwin Swann/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsc-03455)
Printmaking in the 20th century
The invention of photography in the early 1800s had a great influence on the development of the visual arts. Its effect was the most immediate on printmaking: photographic reproduction processes made reproductive printmaking obsolete, and printmaking was returned to the creative artist.
The experimental attitude that originated with the Impressionists accelerated in the 20th century. The new styles and new directions that arose with bewildering rapidity made the first half of the century one of the most exciting periods in the history of art.
Continuing the pattern set in the 19th century, France dominated the art world. Attracted by its creative climate, young artists like the Spaniard Pablo Picasso flocked to Paris from other countries and, together with the French, formed the school of Paris, which produced many first-rate artists.
At the same time, Germany became again a vital art centre. German Expressionism and later the Bauhaus school not only produced a number of distinguished artists but eventually exerted international influence.
The following discussion deals only with the “old masters” of contemporary art, those considered to be in historically secure positions. Four transitional figures are singled out as being of particular importance because they represent a bridge between the 19th and 20th centuries. Edvard Munch was an extraordinarily gifted Norwegian painter and printmaker who worked in Paris and in Berlin. His intense imagery, with psychological undertones, relates him to German Expressionism. A versatile artist, he made outstanding etchings, drypoints, colour lithographs, and experimental woodcuts. The Belgian artist James Ensor made superb etchings in a style related to Impressionism, but with fantastic imagery that was close to Surrealism. Close friends, the Frenchmen Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard produced similar graphic works. Inspired by the Japanese woodcut prints, both made sensitive, beautiful colour lithographs. France
Pablo Picasso was without doubt the most dramatic and monumental figure of contemporary graphic art. Besides being a superb painter and sculptor, he created a graphic oeuvre so rich and all-encompassing that he stands alone. He made well over 1,000 prints, including etchings, engravings, drypoints, woodcuts, lithographs, and linoleum cuts. Georges Braque, the cofounder with Picasso of Cubism, produced 10 major Cubist etchings. The distinguished French painter Henri Matisse was a remarkable colourist and a highly accomplished draftsman. Although the majority of his more than 500 prints are lithographs, he also made some outstanding line etchings and, late in his career, some cutout prints that are masterpieces of design and colour orchestration. Georges Rouault, the French Expressionist, was a solitary figure in contemporary art. The most important graphic work of this religious painter was the Miserere, a set of etchings published in 1948. Jacques Villon, a major French printmaker, was recognized late in his life as a great painter. Early in his career he made colour aquatints, after the paintings of his more celebrated contemporaries, that raised the level of intaglio colour printing to new heights. Later he developed a completely personal style within the Cubist tradition. He made more than 600 prints including engravings, etchings, drypoints, and colour lithographs. The poetic, naïve, and, at the same time, sophisticated style of Marc Chagall, a Russian Jewish member of the school of Paris, sets him apart from any art movement. In his significant body of graphic work, the most accomplished prints are illustrations of the Bible, the works of the Russian writer Nikolay Gogol, and the fables of the Frenchman Jean de La Fontaine. Like his compatriot Picasso, the Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró was a prolific printmaker. His witty colour etchings and lithographs represent an achievement equal to his paintings. Max Ernst was a founder of Surrealism and one of the most inventive and influential members of the group. In his extensive graphic work, he introduced a number of new techniques; most notable was his imaginative use of the “collage” in printmaking. Stanley William Hayter, an English painter-printmaker who lived in Paris, has an important position in the development of contemporary experimental printmaking. His significance lies not only in his work as an artist but also in his influence as a teacher. In the 1930s his Atelier 17 printmaking group was the centre of experimental intaglio work in Paris. In the 1940s he went to the United States and, through his teaching in New York, exercised a powerful influence on contemporary American printmaking. Other artists who did noteworthy graphic work in France include Jean (Hans) Arp, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Fernand Léger, André Masson, and Jules Pascin. Germany
Unlike the extremely varied school of Paris, German Expressionism was quite homogeneous and also much less international. The Expressionists were not united by an aesthetic theory but by their human attitudes and spiritual aspirations. Nearly all of them were active in printmaking, and, although they worked in every contemporary graphic medium, the directness of drypoint and woodcut most appealed to their temperaments.
Lovis Corinth represents a transition from 19th-century naturalism to the Expressionist movement. Although Corinth made etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs, his rich, virile drypoints are his best work. Although not innovative, Käthe Kollwitz’s moving, powerful protest prints against war and poverty are significant graphic statements. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, one of the major figures of German Expressionism, produced a rich graphic oeuvre consisting of etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts. His experimental colour woodcuts represent one of the most distinguished achievements in contemporary graphic art. Emil Nolde produced prints characterized by violent imagery. He worked spontaneously, often making woodcuts without preliminary drawings. Although Nolde came late to graphic work, he left an impressive number of woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs. Max Beckmann was an outstanding draftsman who made many woodcuts and drypoints. In the latter technique he created some of the finest portrait prints of the 20th century. During World War II Beckmann went to the United States, where he exerted considerable influence through his teaching. George Grosz used etchings and lithographs to give savage expression to his social criticism of Germany between the wars. The following Expressionists also left significant graphic work: Ernst Barlach, Erich Heckel, Oskar Kokoschka, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluf, as did the later painter-printmaker and Neo-Expressionist Georg Baselitz.
Self-Portrait with Hand on Forehead, etching by Käthe Kollwitz, 1910; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection (B-7792)
Duo H, inkless intaglio print (relief of design etched on plastic and mounted on Plexiglas) by Josef Albers, 1966. 12.7 × 34.3 cm.Courtesy of Multiples, Inc., New York; photograph, Ralph Tornberg and Associates