Print

What Is a Print? A print is an artwork created by transferring an image from one surface to another. While a drawing may be made directly on paper, a printmaker instead makes marks on a "matrix," such as a metal plate, a mesh screen, or a stone slab. This surface is then treated with ink and pressed against a sheet of paper-sometimes in a printing press- so that the marks pass from the matrix to the paper. Because the matrix can be reinked and printed over and over, prints are often produced in an edition (a numbered set of identical works). Printmaking is frequently a collaborative effort, with highly trained printers working closely with artists to realize their visions. On view here are prints made with three different techniques, along with the tools used to create them. Each process has distinctive visual characteristics: the fine lines of etching, for example, or the flat planes of color in a screenprint. A variety of advanced etching techniques are on display in the nearby exhibition New Ground: Jacob Samuel and Contemporary Etching.