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K-8 Demo Lesson Topics by Grade (ELTA 2018)

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Gelli printing using leaves with Ms Vicky

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Gelli printing with leaves to create abstract compositions.

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Extremely elementary demo of one sort of monoprint

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Linocut Ideas for Beginners

Have you ever made a linoleum block print? Linocut ideas can be hard to conjure if you're not sure where to start. Visitors to my booth at art festivals say they recall making a lino block prints in grade school - or printing from rubber erasers, potato stamps. But what is the grown-up version of a linocut?

The fun thing is this: no matter how old the person is when discussing grade school printmaking - they remember what their first print was. A gecko, a spider, a dog, etc. And they tell the story with a smile.

Printmaking can be a simple process. With a few supplies and a bit of instruction, you can make multiple prints at your kitchen table. This post will help you find ideas for still-life print subjects you can carve from a sheet of linoleum.

Gather Your Block Print Ideas

If you're looking for ideas to make a linocut print, I have an approach to share that'll result in a whole series - especially if you like still life.

The sliced apples and rose linocut print at the top of this post was the result of a scoop through the kitchen to collect items with bright colors. You can do this too.

For the print above, I gathered a dinner napkin with stripes, a green apple, a dessert plate, a wine glass and a bud vase.

I snipped a rose from the yard, sliced the apple, poured water into the wine glass, and arranged the objects on the napkin by a sunny window.

The photos I took of the arrangement were snapped with my cell phone camera, with the flash turned off, from a variety of angles very close to a window for good light.

A tiny scrap of linoleum carved into a portrait of a girl with a bird on her shoulder and a house in the distance. See the finished print in my Etsy Shop .

Still Life Linocut Ideas

What you don't see in my composition in the finished linocut at the top of this post is the clutter [dinner dishes] all around the still life arrangement. Peripheral messes won't matter in your still life arrangements either, if you use artful cropping.

How to Set Up a Still Life Photoshoot for Linocut Ideas

Consider arrangements of normal items from around the house as Still Life props:

A plate, napkin, and cutlery make an interesting geometry for a linocut.

A scattering of lipsticks, nail polish, and a compact with a brush blush.

A cup of tea next to a book with a set of eye glasses on the book casting shadows.

A tape dispenser, a pair of scissors, a container of glue and a trio of sharpened pencils.

A bottle of ink and a quill pen next to an envelope, stamps and paper.

It doesn't take a lot of items to create a compelling layout in a sunny spot for a great linocut. Move your phone's viewfinder around to see views of the arrangements from the top, sides and at the horizon line.

Looking Through Photos for Linocut Ideas

In the photo above, I've searched for the word Flower in the Photos app on my Apple computer. All the images snapped with my cell phone are stored in the Photos app, so I can search for subjects, colors or people.

In a search for the word flower, the results of a still life photoshoot come up. The red roses against a window were photographed from different angles backlit by the sun, with a variety of items added to the scene.

By looking at the resulting pictures as thumbnails, you can see the compositions without all the details. Focusing on the shapes will help you discern which layout will make a more compelling linocut.

Linocut Reference Photo Design Tips

Arrange your still life objects, and pull out your phone or a camera. Start photographing arrangements from a variety of angles and distances.

Squint often to reduce the details into shapes, and look for compositions in your grouping that suggest:

Play with shadows.

Take lots of photos.

Move objects out of the frame, and rearrange the remaining things in the viewfinder. Take more photos.

Zoom in on just one or two of the items in your arrangement, and snap photos of parts of that item with artful cropping.

Put something back into your shot, and remove something else. Take aerial views, ground-up views, horizontal views and diagonal views with your camera.

Here is a video demo of the set up, and carving space on my small studio desk. There are also tips on cutting into the linoleum. Have a look....

Experiment with Linocut Idea Images

Looking at your reference photos in monochrome will help you visualize them as single color, black and white linocuts.

You can also crop the photos to get more interesting compositions, or overlay parts in a composite of multiple photos. (Example: Put a window in the background behind your still life that didn't have a window in the shot, etc.)

From one arrangement of items pulled from your house, you might end up with 25 linocut ideas, as well as sketching and painting fodder if you enjoy other media too.

Sorting Your Linocut Ideas

The photos snapped for the linocut at the top of this post have been used over and over, in other media. Take a look at , and this , and , for examples. One photo session with your phone could result in a goldmine of linocut and painting ideas.

If the objects collected for your linocut still life arrangement are significant to you in some way, or they follow a theme, they'll be even more fun to carve or paint.

Take for example an all white item grouping (eggs in a white bowl). Perhaps an arrangement of themed items, like binoculars, a folded map and sunglasses.

Or gardening clippers, and a seed packet with a glass of lemonade or a piece of fruit.

You could assemble all the same objects - like spools of thread - artfully arranged in a stack.

How about a selection of daisy flower heads on a sheet of paper, in the sun, so the petals cast shadows?

Or a variety of leaves arranged in a heart pattern, etc.

Whatever you decide, have so much fun with it!

Gather Your Linocut Supplies

To begin a linocut, gather your reference materials; a drawing, a photo or a still life - or a clear view of a landscape or interior scene from life. Cut a sheet of linoleum to the size you need, get a permanent marker, some fine grit sandpaper and your .

It's also helpful to have some to rest the linoleum on. Perhaps you can even acquire a , so your hands are never bracing the block, and getting in the path of the blade while you're carving.

This is my wooden bench hook, made by a friend as a mother's day gift many years ago. You can make one too.

Prepare Your Linoleum Block

Before starting, use some fine-grit sandpaper wrapped over a block , and lightly sand the uppermost surface of the . Sanding removes any bumps or blemishes, as well as the sealer used by the manufacturer keep the material from drying out.

Sketch your drawing with a permanent marker, or transfer it with acrylic varnish from a print-out from your computer. (Do you know how to do that? If not, let me know in the comments and I'll explain.)

Drawing the Design for Your Linocut

You'll be carving everything from the linoleum material EXCEPT your drawing, so use your marker to draw the dark parts of your reference image.

Leave the brightest, white parts alone, without any drawn lines on the linoleum. You'll carve those away, which will result in white paper showing through on your print.

Linocut Planning

Look at your reference photo in advance, and ponder which parts should be drawn (printable), and which parts should be left out (carved away to show the white of your paper), etc. Sometimes, it's helpful to increase the contrast in your reference photo with photo imaging software, and print it in black and white.

If you're adding any words to your print, be sure to lay the lettering out backwards because the text (and your entire image) will print in reverse.

If you've never made a linocut print before, choose a relatively simple design so you can get the feel for both cutting and printing. And give yourself permission to mess up; everything new takes a little practice.

Using a rubber brayer to roll printmaking ink onto my carved linoleum block

Rolling Out Ink for a Linocut

I love their tip of using tape as a guide to keep the roller aligned with the block. If you have any tips to share about inking, or block registration, please leave them in the comments at the bottom of this post!

This is a video demonstration of a four color reduction linocut, printed without a press, with non toxic inks.

Printmaking Inks that will Re-Wet

If you plan to add other media to your print after it dries - especially wet media like watercolors or acrylics, be sure to select an ink that dries permanently.

Many water-based inks in art supply stores re-wet when you attempt to paint them, which leads to a big mess of muddy colors and lost details in the print.

Do your research to find inks you can paint on, and be sure you're printing on a paper heavy enough to handle additional wet media without buckling, warping, or bleeding through.

Are you Going to Make a Linocut?

I hope you decide to dive into this wonderful printmaking method, and your adventures are fruitful and fun.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you in the next post!

Belinda

P.S. Here is a cool article about Wayne Thiebaud's self-curated exhibit at SFMOMA

P.P.S. If you'd like each new post over here to magically arrive in your inbox, you can sign up for a subscription (free) here.

Here is the first video (below) in a playlist of linocut relief print videos to help you get started with this versatile, fun form of printmaking!

Step by Step Demonstration on a two-color Reduction Linocut Print

Art Quote

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking. Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
As though with your arms open. Mary Oliver

Click the kitty to visit this free online mini course - Six Tips to Paint More

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Have you ever made a linoleum block print? Linocut ideas can be hard to conjure if you're not sure where to start. Visitors to my booth at art festivals say they recall making a lino block prints in grade school - or printing from rubber erasers, potato stamps.

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The da Vinci Printing Press at Discovery Museum

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the rules

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Graphic Art, Social Justice, Silkscreen

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[music]

-They had something called Mary''s Day, which a European celebration.

I think a lot of people think this is a protest,

but it''s a celebration to bring awareness which were great concepts,

and their focus was world hunger.

I think when you talk about Corita''s work and how special it truly is,

it''s looking at the future generations that can pull from her work.

I think that her pieces are as relevant today as they were when she created them.

Oh, the rules. Pick your favorite rule. [chuckles]

People tend to really resonate with this.

I think a lot of artists really resonate with this.

She asked her students, "What is important

to you in both the teacher and your role as a student?"

She took from that and created the 10 Rules.

People tend to have a favorite rule, or what they''re drawn to,

or whatever speaks to them that day is what they needed to hear.

[music]

-Rule 1, find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.

Rule 2, general duties of a student, pull everything out

of your teacher, pull everything out of your fellow students.

Rule 3, general duties of a teacher, pull everything out of your students.

Rule 4, consider everything an experiment.

Rule 5, be self-disciplined.

Discipline has to do with being a disciple.

This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them.

To be disciplined is to follow in a good way.

[music]

-We see, in the 1960s, graphic designers were trying

to distinguish themselves from commercial artists.

Then you have somebody like Sister Corita who has a real

desire for the church to reach out and help the community,

bringing in all kinds of public figures and all of the art

and design community that''s happening here in Los Angeles.

-There''s a great book, which I''ll pass around and you can take a look at.

There''s one statement in it which is from the Balinese.

They say, "We have no art.

We do everything as well as we can, so that you don''t

have art off in a little niche someplace.

You have no distinction between what is art and what is not art.

You do everything as well as you can."

-Corita was always an artist.

There''s these wonderful stories of her as a child with her family

and her father always pushing her to think outside of the box.

She was part of the Immaculate Heart College but she also was a nun.

She was born Frances Kent, but she actually took

on the name Corita, which means little heart.

From the time she joined the order, she was known as Sister Mary Corita.

What is really unique too for the time period

is that she went to school for art as well.

She actually got her master''s from USC.

She was the head of the Art Department there at the Immaculate Heart

College, which was the epicenter for a lot of forward thinkers.

A lot of her work is inspired by the conversations that happened there.

-She had a lot of influences that were coming from New York because

of Andy Warhol, but she also had local artists like Charles and Ray Eames.

The mentorship she had, especially with Charles Eames, really

influenced her way of thinking about a kind of visual freedom.

-She sees Andy Warhol. She goes, "Wow. Everyday art."

The stuff that''s in grocery stores.

She sees these graphics that are coming from the every day, and she begins

to see these messages as particularly ones that she can use.

-A work of art makes you alert to what you haven''t noticed

in the ordinary things so that the distinction narrows between

what is ordinary and what is extraordinary.

-In the 60s, you see her work take a turn.

It becomes a little more about the typography.

-Sister Corita really begins to look at the commercial use of graphics,

sees how bold they are, and begins to flip that on its head and actually use

those instrumentally in very different kinds of messages.

-One of the ways that she did that is by taking imagery, taking

lettering, taking text and messages from everyday life, from street signs,

from newspapers, from packaging and advertising,

and reworking them to actually create new messages.

-Corita, who didn''t have digital technology, would take type

and actually wrap it around boxes to create a dimensional shape,

then photograph them and make that a flat thing

that she would then get onto a screen print.

-She''s thinking about language and the way that we communicate with one

another, but then also just finding beauty in the typography in the way

that those letters lay on that paper and then the way that she''s layering them.

-Serigraph to this silkscreen print.

The word serigraph means drawing on silk.

You form your stencil on the silk and print through that stencil,

so you''re printing through the silk onto a piece of paper.

-She''s physically manipulating this text in a way that''s really groundbreaking.

-By taking stencils and moving them and reshaping them so they have

this wavy distorted effect, you really broke free of that grid.

You broke free of this era of modernism out of the 50s and the early

60s where everything was really structured and very rigid.

-When I look at Sister Corita Kent''s work, it''s so beautiful.

Sometimes, it''s so simple.

-When people looked at how she mixed photographs and lettering

and color and montage, first off, it blows your mind.

-Sister Corita''s often lumped in with other pop artists.

That''s true on an aesthetic sense, but I think

that her work had such deep messages within it.

Corita''s work is playful and powerful at the same time.

There aren''t many other designers that can do that.

[music]

-There is a pretty famous print of hers where she is

actually referencing the packaging of Wonder Bread.

Inside of the circle, she has written in a quote

from Gandhi, "There are so many hungry people."

Basically, in this idea that there could be the possibility

to feed them all in this commercial image of bread gets

adopted by Corita to be this revolutionary message

that is talking about feeding and sustaining people,

but is also referencing her experience as a Catholic nun

and the Christian image of breaking bread as a spiritual and symbolic

expression of nourishing humanity.

-Sometimes you can take the whole of the world in,

and sometimes you need a small piece to take in.

I think that''s really what a work of art is,

even though we don''t have works of art anymore.

It''s a small piece that you can digest, which gives

you a kind of idea of the richness that is in the whole.

-She had this practice that she would do with her students called the viewfinder.

-She would have the students hold up the viewfinder as exercise in cropping

and looking at gas stations science, or the grocery store, or supermarket.

I think there''s something about the visual landscape of Los Angeles,

of Southern California, that would inspire her and her students.

-She was a teacher first and then an artist.

A lot of her writing is about creating a space in which

students felt comfortable and free and open to experiment.

She was all about opening up the mind to new

ways of thinking and seeing the world.

-Part of her work and what she was interested in was also putting

her graphics, not just in her screen prints and her serigraphs,

but also organizing parades, demonstrations, marches with her students

where they would perform their graphics in public space as a reflection back

on the turmoil and the dynamism and the possibility

that was happening specifically in Los Angeles.

[music]

-If you can think of Hollywood in the late

60s, it''s a very groovy time, but also really,

there''s a lot of turbulent things happening here in California.

There is some calm in chaos in the conversations

that she was partaking with some of these forward thinkers.

"What does change mean? What does hope mean? What is social justice?"

You see that in a lot of her pieces, particularly in the 60s.

They seem to be a direct reaction to what''s happening in Los Angeles.

-She was moved by the anti-war movement, by the social justice movement.

She had a very unique style that she brought to the table.

It took a while for her artwork to penetrate

a broader social justice movement, but it did.

-The Watts uprising occurs and she takes the cover of the Los Angeles

Times, which essentially blames the African-American community.

She flips that on its side and then includes a quote from

a gentleman that had been marching in Selma at that time.

It''s a real direct reaction.

It''s one of her first pieces that she starts almost

in a way reporting what''s happening in the world.

[music]

-She particularly gets politically activated about the Vietnam war.

Her work begins to change from spiritual

messages into very political messages.

[background noise]

-A Yellow Submarine is actually what this is titled, this yellow submarine.

Here, you''ll see Vietnam flipped on its side and you see the text slightly broken.

Then here you have the Lennon Mat Kearney lyric that she attributes to them.

I think printmaking was almost conceptual practice for her.

How do you get your ideas out into the world as fast

as possible, and the fact that the paper is really democratic?

Not everybody feels comfortable going into a museum or a gallery.

It feels like maybe a language that you don''t know how to speak.

Here''s somebody who demystifies that to some

degree, I think that speaks to a lot of her ethos

that she exhibited through her lifetime of accessibility, through art.

-Short and instructive as a work of art is, I think it was shot

and said that art is the only thing that could educate painlessly.

-One of the things that''s exciting about her work is that it allows

people of all different types to be engaged with art and graphic design.

A lot of her legacy was making this kind of work accessible.

Not just to the people who were viewing it, but those who might want to make it.

-Part of the legacy of what Sister Corita was doing at Immaculate Heart

was somebody likes Sister Karen, who goes on to start self-help graphics.

-Sister Karen was a student of Sister Corita Kent.

-Sister Karen invented the Barrio Mobile, where

they would bring screen-printing to communities

that didn''t necessarily have the best access to education.

They were helping groups in Los Angeles that didn''t have the best

access to art or any other resources, but they sure had a lot to say.

-Here''s this incredibly innovative way of engaging

community that these artists were creating in the 70s.

That approach to working with community is something

that''s so critical and core to what self-help graphics is.

-Essentially, we were part of the Chicano Art Movement,

so it was a way of expressing a culture and who

the artists were through their visual images.

-In the early 70s, you have a community

that is experiencing the east LA walkouts, which was an incredible

student movement had just happened here on the east side.

The Chicano Moratorium had just happened.

There''s a lot of communal trauma that''s being experienced on a national level.

We''re dealing with the Vietnam War, and here

locally, there''s a lot happening on the east side.

The Chicano community as a whole, I think, is feeling various forms of oppression.

That is the context that self-help graphics comes up in.

Sister Karen as a Franciscan nun, I think saw an opportunity,

and interestingly actually, had to convince

her order that self-help graphics

was a form of fulfilling her spiritual mission.

I think she was really able to make the argument that art

is life, and this has to be part of people''s lives,

and this is the service that we''re bringing to the community,

and that''s then how it fulfills her mission.

-It was like bringing art into life and making art part

of life, which I think is really the critical element

that we have as an example from the Chicano Art Movement,

that art isn''t just something that somebody teaches

out of a book or that only a few people practice, art is a part of the life.

-Really just understanding art and culture as being critical to somebody''s

everyday life is absolutely part of what Sister Karen imbued on the organization.

I do see that influence in terms

of her connection to being a Sister of Corita Kent

and having that understanding and approach to engaging community on a broader level.

[music]

-Welcome guys. It''s really nice that you came.

We prepared some things to do with you.

How many of you have heard about Corita Kent before?

The more I got engaged into her work, the more

I got interested in her pedagogy because this is

really what drives the fact that the work is for everyone.

-You can''t talk about Corita without talking about her pedagogies,

the way that she shaped community inside of her classroom and outside in the world

is something that is reverberating through design education right now.

-I absolutely think that the influence of Corita is very much present

in what self-help graphics was

in those earlier years, but I think even now,

nearly 50 years later, there''s absolutely ripple effects.

-You may need just a bit more ink, so if you want

to grab a little bit from here.

-self-help graphics today is still continuing that printmaking legacy.

To prove that that is possible, the way that Sister Karen had set out

while holding space for the broader community and the community at large.

-Part of what I think is important about the connection between

Sister Corita and Sister Karen, who started self-help graphics,

is this Matra lineage of design education.

-What is that ripple effect in the world when you have these

important historical figures, specifically women in history?

I really truly believe that Corita was one of those.

-I think that''s actually something that''s a huge part of California,

that women have been pioneers and leaders in design education.

Corita is a main fixture of this image of activism,

design history, and design making in California.

-Rule 6, nothing is a mistake, there''s no win and no fail, there''s only make.

Rule 7, the only rule is work.

If you work, it will lead to something.

It''s the people who do all of the work all

of the time who eventually catch on to things.

Rule 8, don''t try to create and analyze

at the same time, there are different processes.

Rule 9, be happy whenever you can manage it, or as the ad

says, enjoy yourself, it''s wider than you think.

Finally, in John Cage''s words, we''re breaking all

the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that?

By leaving plenty of room for x quantities.

-This program was made possible in part by City of Los Angeles,

Department of Cultural Affairs, LA County Department of Arts and Culture,

and the California Arts Council.

[music]

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At a time when pop art was finding its footing and the nation was in a state of upheaval, Sister Corita helped make art more accessible to the public. This episode charts her art practice and her effect on generations after her.

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The American University presents Forward Press: 21st Century Printmaking Spring 2019.

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Award Winning Gelli Arts® Printing Plates in Action!

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Brief conversation with grade 3 student talking about his screen print.

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For much of their history fine art prints have been a private art form, designed for connoisseurs and collectors, published in limited editions and hidden away in portfolios. The 20th century saw the development of a more public role for prints, with the adoption of affordable processes such as linocut, and editioned lithographs made for public display, such as those commissioned by J. Lyons & Co. for their restaurants, and the much-loved 'School Prints' in the 1940s and 50s. Even so print-making was rarely an artist's main focus. Instead it tended to be a peripheral activity, secondary to painting or sculpture This changed in the 1960s and 70s with the rise of print studios such as Gemini GEL and ULAE in the USA, and Kelpra Studio in the UK. This development encouraged artists to explore the potential of printmaking and use it to produce works which represented major breakthroughs as creative statements, placing print, arguably for the first time, alongside sculpture and painting as a primary means of expression. Printmaking, silk-screening in particular, was also appropriated by artists such as Rauschenberg and Warhol for unique works on canvas, and 'combined' with painting and installation pieces.

The boundaries that once defined printmaking began to blur. From the cutting-edge experiments of the 1960s printmaking has developed in many new directions, and over the last 20 years prints have become more visible, accessible and affordable than ever before. No longer merely secondary, supplementary or reproductive, print is now a central part of many artists' activity, the equal of their output in other media, and conceived as integral or complementary to it.

New technologies have been swiftly co-opted for fine art printmaking, and traditional techniques have been supplanted, modified (and sometimes facilitated) by the photocopier, the fax, and the inkjet printer attached to a PC. At the same time, some artists have continued to explore the untapped potential of more traditional methods, whether it be by printing on surfaces other than paper, by working on an unprecedented scale or simply by working in a way which expands the definitions of 'print'. The rise of new media, viewed by some as a threat to the future of printmaking, has simply extended the options available. Just as the invention of lithography did not render woodcut and engraving redundant, and photography did not spell the end for traditional graphic media, so digital technologies have not replaced other methods but rather extended choice and capacity.

Paul Coldwell heads a leading research programme at the University of the Arts, London, on the integration of computer technology into fine-art practice. His own works are frequently a combination of both digital and more traditional processes. The journey from original source material, repeatedly modified and re-formed, to final print, might be read as a metaphor for his imagery, which frequently reflects on the plight of refugees and migrants who are also constantly moving on and adapting to new circumstances.

In Case Studies Coldwell, with deliberate irony perhaps, works from an image that resembles a tourist postcard of mountains - the kind one might send to friends announcing the pleasures of being away from home. The pixels of the original image have been manipulated to create a pattern of dots through which the mountains are barely recognisable. Some of the dots have been enlarged and deep-etched after transfer to the etching plate and thus, as white and embossed stars, they appear to fall in front of rather than beyond the mountains. The floating, open, empty suitcase is a poignant constellation, invoking both the idea of travel and the idea of travelling with nothing. The inversion of stars and mountains creates a kind of 'inside-out nature', suggesting that landscape, and by association, homeland or distant sanctuary, is something beyond reach - less accessible even than the stars themselves.

Printmaking is often a collaborative activity and workshops and studios have played a crucial role in the development of artists' ideas around print. The internationally renowned Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia and the community-based London Printworks Trust are just two of the organisations which have generated a range of imaginative print projects, collaborations, interventions and co-operative ventures. Both in their own ways have used print as a strategy for social and political engagement. This policy could almost be described as a mission statement for The London Print Studio, another important centre for printmaking which has education and accessibility at its core. In the USA, the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, attached to a university, encourages artists from under-represented communities into an environment, where students can learn enormously from the new narratives these artists offer to the mainstream.

Jaune Quick-to-see Smith is a Native-American of mixed Salish, French, Cree and Shoshone descent. This print takes the form of an unfolded parflêche (literally 'parry arrow') a Native American carry-all, traditionally made from dried buffalo hide, a large sheet which is then folded, tied and decoratively painted. It has associations as a carrier of messages about history and origins, and suggests the 'carriage' of Native-American ideas and values into contemporary, Euro-centric culture.

Smith made this image in the wake of the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda on American targets in 2001. The blood gushing from the hand is hand-painted in patriotic colours and suggests the suffering of the 'American people', but the deliberately ambiguous figure (it could be a fashionably dressed city girl, or a traditionally dressed Native American) also suggests that many 'Americans' may have ignored and forgotten the incredible suffering wrought on the people who lived on the land before the Europeans arrived.

Lithography can reproduce the formal qualities of many other processes too, such as charcoal drawing, watercolour, collage and photography. In this print many of these qualities have been drawn together with the addition of collage elements made of copied US postage stamps and other icons of American life. Smith was particularly appreciative of the skills of master printer Eileen Foti at the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper who worked with her on this print and came forward with many suggestions for realising the form of the image.

Printmaking, especially processes such as woodcut and lino-cut, which are cheap and relatively easy to produce and require little in the way of materials or studio facilities, has also been adopted in cultures and communities (such as Botswana, the Torres Strait Islands, and amongst Aboriginal artists in mainland Australia) where it was previously unknown. This has been welcomed as a means of preserving, or reviving, traditional imagery, and as a means of disseminating such imagery through the international (largely western) art world, and equally important, participating in its art markets.

The audience (and the market) for prints has shifted radically in recent years. The conoisseurial appreciation of editions, states, and proofs is still influential, but much contemporary printmaking operates outside this structure. On the one hand there are artists making one-off unique works, such as Lee Wagstaff's Shroud prints, or Ken McDonald's modified tramp's coat. On the other, the unlimited un-numbered edition, whether of an artist's wallpaper printed specifically for an exhibition, or of printed flyers, badges or carrier bags, is now commonplace. At the same time, with the adoption of print for site-specific projects and public art commissions such as the innovative Platform for Art scheme on the London Underground, the circumstances for viewing prints, and the definition of 'print' itself, have changed considerably. These developments, together with strategies such as self-publication, have taken prints outside the established critical context, the gallery system, and the art market.

Indeed prints may now be sold on market stalls, from vending machines or over the internet. Look carefully at your paper coffee cup, for it may be a public work of art. As stickers, magazine inserts, flyers and postcards, prints can be acquired at little or no cost. Even those visitors who were unable to afford anything on the walls of the 2003 Frieze Art Fair might have pocketed a copy of the re-issued London Underground map printed with Emma Kay's specially-designed target motif, and carried home a catalogue in a bag designed by Turner-Prize winner Jeremy Deller. There have also been opportunities to collaborate with an artist on-line, as in Peter Halley's project (on the web site of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) to produce a print from a series of image options which anyone can colour to their own specification, and print out at home.

Artists have increasingly turned to cheap everyday printed material to exploit the democratic potential of printmaking as a means of putting art into the public domain in an affordable and accessible form. The use of carrier bags as artworks in their own right, or as advertising for an event or exhibition has become a regular strategy. There are precedents for this, including Andy Warhol's paper carriers printed with his iconic soup-can image, and Barbara Kruger's ironic motto for today's' consumer-driven society 'I shop therefore I am' which has been co-opted by department stores, but Deller's bag is not a reproduction of an image or text from another context - it is an independent original work existing only as a bag. Much of his work involves a collaboration in the staging of public events, and an engagement with audiences outside the confines of a gallery. He has previously used print - in the form of images and slogans on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and small ads in newspapers - for subversive messages that would be seen by a wide public. He has described such interventions as being 'ephemeral and celebratory of (their) environment' in comparison to the embarrassed bombast of 'official' public art.

The bag is one from a series of four commissioned by Frieze and designed to be given away free (usually with the purchase of a catalogue or guide) at the first Frieze Art Fair in London in 2003. The bag is thus an example of art sponsorship and a souvenir of a major art-world event, as well as a work of public art randomly disseminated by visitors to the Fair. It works as a simple but effective advertisement, not only for the product (the Fair) but also for the tastes and attitudes of the person carrying it. As a kind of status symbol, like a bag from a designer store, it is a tool for communication, a means of transmitting coded signals to other members of our 'tribe'. In this context the bag becomes an emblem, like a badge of belonging, which connects us to those who can read the signs. But at the same time it enforces a kind of exclusivity, because Deller's bags with their intriguing but opaque messages, act to tantalise or bemuse the un-initiated.

The beer brewing company Beck's has been sponsoring contemporary art events since 1985 when they supported the German Art in the 20th Century exhibition at the Royal Academy. Since then Beck's has commemorated its major sponsorships and exhibition openings by inviting artists to create limited edition labels for the bottles of beer which are offered to guests at the private views. By doing this they aim to identify their brand image with the perceived attributes of contemporary art: cool, original, young, irreverent, controversial and talked-about. Each design offers us a snapshot of the artist's work within the limitations of a small label. Some are instantly recognisable, such as Damien Hirst's coloured dots, familiar from his spot paintings (one of two labels he designed in 1995), but others are a little less obvious. Tim Head's label shows several plastic coffee stirrers; his design connects with his interest in patterns and motifs derived from everyday throw-away materials. Rebecca Horn is best-known as the maker of wearable artworks, and kinetic sculptures which produce sounds or generate 'paintings' by mechanical gestures of pouring or spilling.

In every case, these artist-designed labels represent a fascinating synthesis of art and design, with popular culture, marketing and consumption, as well as embodying the youth-orientated character of Beck's sponsorship campaigns.

Another consequence of the many technical and conceptual developments is that printmaking is now disputed territory. The rise of artists' multiples and of print-marketing via the internet, has led some to dismiss such editions as mere 'reproductions'. There has been some debate about whether the prints produced by artists such as Damien Hirst and others, through the mediation of print publishers such as the Paragon Press, can be considered the equal of those prints which are not only conceived by the artist, but worked and printed by him/her too, but the argument may be thought parochial and has had little influence on sales, on critical opinion, or on museum acquisition policies. The tradition of artists working with and dependent on the technical skills of master printers and specialist print studios is centuries old, even if it only became more obvious as a means of production with the establishment of major lithographic studios in the USA from the late 1950s. 'Originality' is really only a matter of degree, evolving with the changing applications of traditional processes and the introduction of new ones. Similarly, new tools such as the computer, the inkjet printer and so on, may be regarded simply as the means to an end - chosen for their own particular qualities and their potential to deliver what the artist has in mind.

All these innovations prompt the question: what is a print? The term now encompasses everything from the stencilled guerrilla graphics of graffiti artists such as Banksy, to museum-sponsored billboards, appropriated or found material which is then modified, a cake iced with a laser-jet printed image, printed MDF floors, wallpapers and soft furnishings designed for installations. In recent years printmaking has co-opted painting and sculpture, dress and domestic furnishings, commerce and cyberspace. Dynamic and democratic, the world of printmaking now includes the billboard and the badge, the masterpiece and the multiple, the priceless and the give-away. Prints are a vital and vibrant link between the museum and the marketplace, the elite and the everyday.

Gill Saunders, Senior Curator (Prints)
Rosie Miles, Curator (Prints)

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prints & drawings; prints collection; 21st century; jeremy dellar; harold cohen; paul coldwell; jaune quick-to-see smith; georgia russell; tim head; damien hirst; rebecca horn; zakee shariff

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What is a print? The term now encompasses stencilled guerrilla graphics, museum-sponsored billboards, appropriated or found material, a cake iced with a laser-jet printed image, printed MDF floors, wallpapers and soft furnishings. In recent years printmaking has co-opted painting and sculpture, dress and domestic furnishings, commerce and cyberspace.

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Elementary Level