Dark Lady, metal graphic print by Rolf Nesch, 1953. 57.1 × 50.2 cm.Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, gift of Lessing J. RosenwaldOther artists moved in a more formal, abstract direction. Based on their philosophy of “new objectivity,” they founded the Bauhaus school in Germany in 1919. The two major artists in this group were the Russian Wassily Kandinsky and the Swiss Paul Klee. Kandinsky was one of the great innovators of contemporary art. In his early, lyrical paintings he was a forerunner of Abstract Expressionism, and in his late mature work he introduced Geometric Abstraction. His graphic work consists of an impressive number of woodcuts and lithographs. The whimsical, lyrical abstractions of Klee also had great influence on the course of modern art. His work—about 120 etchings and lithographs—is full of graphic invention and a rare sense of humour. Lyonel Feininger, born in the United States of German parents, studied in Europe and worked most of his life in Germany. He was associated with Der Blaue Reiter group (artists who wished to express through their work the spiritual realities they felt had been ignored by the Impressionists) and then in 1919–33 with the Bauhaus. Feininger concentrated mostly on landscapes, executed in a very personal Cubist style, and was one of the most productive graphic artists at the Bauhaus. In the beginning, he made some etchings and lithographs but from 1918 worked mainly in woodcuts. Josef Albers, also associated with the Bauhaus, was born in Germany and moved to the United States in 1933. He made a considerable number of prints, including colour silk screens. Rolf Nesch was born in Germany, where he started printmaking with the encouragement of Kirchner. He fled to Oslo from Germany in 1933. One of the most gifted experimental printmakers of the 20th century, Nesch developed the method called metal graphic, which he used to make extremely intricate, heavily embossed colour prints.
Other countries
Printmaking in Italy was far behind France and Germany. The Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni made a few interesting etchings and the Cubist Gino Severini published a number of rather manneristic etchings and colour lithographs, but neither could be considered important printmakers. Giorgio Morandi is the only major Italian printmaker of this period. His intimate, delicate still-life and landscape etchings occupy a very special position in contemporary graphic art.
In Great Britain, Henry Moore, one of the great sculptors of the 20th century, published a number of strong lithographs. Graham Sutherland, a painter, made more than 100 etchings and lithographs in a distinctly personal style. Anthony Gross, a talented and prolific English printmaker, published an impressive body of excellent landscape etchings and engravings. Among later artists, the imaginative and personal graphic work of David Hockney should be singled out.
In the United States, after the turn of the 20th century, most of the prominent painters became fairly active printmakers: George Wesley Bellows, in lithography; John Sloan and Reginald Marsh, in etching; Milton Avery, in drypoint and a large number of monoprints; and Stuart Davis, in colour lithography. Among these painter-printmakers, two artists are particularly notable: Edward Hopper, whose few etchings are very personal and of unusually high quality; and Ben Shahn, an extremely prolific printmaker, who left an impressive graphic oeuvre in practically every medium. Of the subsequent generation of established painter-printmakers, only a few were creatively involved in the process, while the rest let the commercial printer take over.
A revival of the art of the woodcut began in Japan in the late 1920s as part of the modern art movement. Onchi Kōshirō and Hiratsuka Un’ichi were early exponents who, though working in different styles, did most for the renaissance of this national art, which thrived once again after World War II. Among the notable woodcut artists of the postwar period are Munakata Shikō and Saitō Kiyoshi.
After the mid-20th century, there was a spectacular increase in printmaking activity. Artists all over the world experimented with every conceivable medium. In this period probably more prints were made and more technical innovations introduced than in the previous history of printmaking. Among the many printmakers of note in the late 20th century were the Americans Jacob Lawrence, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Wayne Thiebaud, Fairfield Porter, Jim Dine, Julian Schnabel, Kiki Smith, Kerry James Marshall, and Elizabeth Catlett.
Citation Information
Article Title: Printmaking
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 21 January 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/art/printmaking
Access Date: August 17, 2019
Additional Reading
Donald Saff and Deli Sacilotto, Printmaking: History and Processes (1978), with emphasis on the multitude of techniques; Riva Castleman, Prints of the Twentieth Century (1976), a popularly written survey; Fritz Eichenberg, The Art of the Print (1976), general history and technique; Arthur M. Hind, A History of Engraving and Etching from the 15th Century to the Year 1914, 3rd ed. rev. (1923, reprinted 1963), and An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, with a Detailed Survey of Work Done in the Fifteenth Century, 2 vol. (1935, reprinted 1963), cover brilliantly the whole history and development of Western printmaking; and Jay A. Levenson, Konrad Oberhuber, Jacquelyn L. Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art (1973), a thorough study of the Italian Renaissance. Other studies particularly recommended are: Jean Laran, L’Estampe, 2 vol. (1959), excellent documentation coupled with a volume of fine reproductions; Willy Boller, Masterpieces of the Japanese Color Woodcut (1957), not a scholarly book but it covers well the high points of Japanese printmaking; Carl Zigrosser, The Book of Fine Prints, rev. ed. (1956), an easy-to-read introduction into the history of printmaking; Ellen S. Jacobowitz and Stephanie L. Stepenak, The Prints of Lucas Van Leyden and His Contemporaries (1983), excellent documentation of the period; David Freedberg, Dutch Landscape Prints of the Seventeenth Century (1980); A. Hyatt Mayor, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1952), a fine biography of Piranesi with an excellent selection of illustrations; Wolf Stubbe, Graphic Arts of the Twentieth Century (1963; originally published in German, 1962), good introduction into the history of contemporary printmaking; James Watrous, American Printmaking (1984), covering 1880 to 1980; Una E. Johnson, American Prints and Printmakers (1980), a comprehensive study covering 1900–80; Karen F. Beall (comp.), American Prints in the Library of Congress (1970); E.S. Lumsden, The Art of Etching (1929, reprinted 1962), excellent document on the traditional etching techniques; Willi Kurth (ed.), The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (1946), primarily a picture book with historical background; Carl Zigrosser and Christa M. Gaehde, A Guide to the Collecting and Care of Original Prints (1965), a wealth of indispensable information for the collector; Stanley W. Hayter, About Prints (1962), challenging ideas about printmaking by an important artist and teacher; Richard T. Godfrey,