The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) annual art fair is one of my favorite events. I’ve been going for at least 30 years. For the uninitiated, a print is a work of art made from ink, paper, and a press. Prints almost always start on a surface other than paper. An etching, for instance, starts on a metal plate. The artist coats it with a special wax and then draws his design on the waxed plate. He places it in an acid solution that bites his lines into the metal. He inks the plate, chooses his paper, mates paper and plate in a printing press, and, voilà, an etching is born.
My example, simple enough, disguises endless quirks, qualifications, and bits of irrational exuberance. All figure in the best art. Paintings top the art hierarchy for their juicy surfaces, fancy frames, singularity, and color, though today prints in all manner of Technicolor are to be had. And printmakers challenge the old classifications — etching, engraving, woodcut, lithograph, among them — all the time.
Comments