An Introduction to Printmaking

13 January 2020

Watch our latest educational film, which features artist and printmaker, Professor Paul Coldwell. The film presents an introduction to the four main printmaking techniques found in Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition, The Printed Line, exploring the tools and techniques used and demonstrating the differing characteristics particular to each approach.

Using examples of artworks from the Arts Council Collection, including Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud and Rachel Whiteread, the film explores how each printmaking process makes different demands on the artist and allows for a huge range of approaches to mark-making.

The film, which has been produced with support from Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts London, features demonstrations by Brian D Hodgson and Paul Atkins.

The current touring exhibition considers how artists have used a variety of printmaking techniques to exploit the potential of the printed line, from the thick velvety line of drypoint and the heavy cross-hatching of etching to delicate wood engraving and boldly coloured screenprints and lithographs. Spanning the 20th century and up to the present day, the exhibition will include Walter Sickert's masterly cross-hatched etching The Old Middlesex (c.1910), Ben Nicholson's rich drypoint Halse Town 1949 (1949), Eduardo Chillida's bold etchings and David Hockney's pared down linear etchings in Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C. P. Cavafy (1966-67). The use of colour will be explored in screenprints by Bridget Riley and Kenneth Martin, as well as Simon Patterson's witty lithograph reworking of the lines of the London tube map.

An Arts Council Collection film produced with kind support of Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.

Share

Close
Artists
Artworks
Exhibitions
Articles
Other

The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

With more than 8,000 works by over 2,000 artists, it can be seen in exhibitions and public displays across the country and beyond. This website offers unprecedented access to the Collection, and information about each work can be found on this site.