The Fine Print

Philbrook Museum of Art's latest exhibition, "Everyday People, Everyday Places: Prints from the Age of Impressionism," which opens Sunday, March 22, is an interesting and educational exhibit of prints that, at the time of their making, discreetly foreshadowed future trends, evidence of the painter-printmaker's influence on modern art.

The advent of printmaking helped artists proliferate and profit from their works, but it wasn't until 1830 in France when the idea was really embraced by artists. Using etching techniques, artists who had never attempted printmaking before could, with the help of a professional printmaker, print multiple copies of the same image. This allowed them to be more widely distributed than could a single oil painting on canvas or a sculpture.

Early printmaking originated in Asia pre-1400, said Philbrook librarian and curator of the exhibit Thomas Young. The Chinese used woodcuts to print both text and images onto textiles. Engraving, he said, was originally done as decoration on metal armor, shields, mirrors, etc. Lithography came about as a way to print music onto paper.

The concept of the peintre-graveur, the painter-printmaker, was also not a new one but one that grew in popularity in 19th century France. Those painter-printmakers used the technology not only for mass producing works but also for creating new, original works within a new medium.

"While there are individuals who still focus their artistic careers solely on the creation and production of original prints, most printmakers are more like the earlier painter-printmakers; they are painters and sculptors who also explore their artistic ideas in the print medium. Usually, they work in collaboration with skilled printers and publishers to create a print or suite of prints," said Young.

He said that, while there were and are some artists who create a print from start to finish entirely on their own, it was and is more often a collaborative process, involving artists, printers, publishers, dealers and collectors. Some examples of such 19th century collaborations are the alliances Félix Bracquemond formed with Éduard Manet and Camille Pissarro, the printer Alfred Cadart with Edgar Degas, or the gallery owner Paul Vollard with Paul Renoir.

While printmaking was born out of a commercial need to produce multiple images of a single work, it was during the 1850s that new methods emerged for reproducing works, such as mechanical reproduction, photography and the artist's print.

"It was also a way for artists to promote themselves," Young said. "Not everyone can travel to Italy to see Michelangelo's murals. But if you make 100 prints and distribute them, then a lot more people can see them."

Young continued, "The painter-printmaker saw the print as an original art form, a medium not only used for reproduction."

Young said that, of the 20 or so prints included in the exhibit, many of them were originally created as illustrations for books.

"By the 19th century, during the etching revival, it was really about an interest in the process of etching in terms of creating original works of art and not just reproductions of paintings," he said.

Expressive

While the title implies that the prints on display were done in the style of Impressionism, not all were. Impressionist artists made some, while artists who painted in the Impressionist style but also in other styles as well made others.

The real focus of the exhibit, Young said, is the painter-printmaker artists who, rather than look to the romanticism of the past, heeded Charles Baudelaire's call to "be of one's own time." Thus, the artists created works portraying everyday activities, still lifes and landscapes.

The exhibit contains works housed in Philbrook's permanent collection, except one that is on loan from the Herbert and Rosaline Gussman Collection.

The works were collected by the museum during the last 25 years, mostly acquired through donation. While some of the works have been on display at the museum before, they've never been exhibited together with a focus on printmaking. The museum began work on the exhibit last year.

Young said the works on display are relevant to today's artists, who either create print reproductions of their work for distribution or who use printmaking as an exploratory medium for creating new works.

"I really think the printmakers of the world that we have today are a continuation of that 19th century development," Young said. "Printmaking as a business also took off in the 19th century and is still popular today."

"Everyday People, Everyday Places" will be on display through June 14. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm. The museum is open until 8pm every Thursday. Admission is $7.50 for adults. Every second Saturday of the month, museum goers enjoy free admission. For more, go to www.philbrook.org.