Gallery Critique Assignment

Assignment: Students are to visit the gallery "Pressed and Pulled" exhibition on September 23 during class time. The following commentary and exhibition questions was written for you by Professor Marc Snyder in the Art Department. Please take this sheet with you, and respond to the questions in the text. Due on October 5th.

Things to look for and questions to ask about Pressed and Pulled VIII

by Professor Marc Snyder

This exhibition is composed solely of contemporary original prints. An original print is not a reproduction of an artwork made in another art medium, but is an image that is dependent on the unique qualities of the printmaking media for its appearance. The artist chooses the printmaking medium that provides him or her with the most satisfying visual qualities appropriate to the kind of statement that the artist wants to make. The four traditional categories of printmaking are relief, intaglio, lithography, and silkscreen. Each has a different "look" and provides the artist with a different range of visual opportunities. The 30 minute video "Printmaker", available at the exhibition, will give you a quick overview of the unique qualities of each of these media.

Compare the "Ironing Board Man" by David Ekdahl, a relief print, with "Ulitimate Grace" by Judith Anderson, an intaglio print. These two prints nicely display the different qualities inherent in these two media. Why would the artist choose either media for his or her work? Which of the pieces is quiet, and which is loud? In which piece is the tool the artist used more evident?

Some printmaking media reveal the hand of the artist more than others. An image where we really feel that we can see over the artist's shoulder while she is working will have a different effect than one in which the artist seems more distant. Compare Ellen Price's "Funneled" with Sarah Marshall's "True Key and False Keys". Both of these prints deal with organic and scientific imagery, yet one seems very personal, almost like a diary or a memory, and one seems more cold and analytical. Why is this? Are there other prints in the exhibition that seem warmer and more personal, or cold and detached? How does this effect the way you respond to the artwork?

An interesting aspect of printmaking is that it is an example of artists using "antique technology" to make contemporary art. At some point in history each of these processes was the best way to make multiple images. Woodblock was at one point the most commercially appropriate way to broadly disseminate information. Contemporary printmakers pick up these antique techniques now because they like the way they look. But many printmakers are also interested in that history. There are several images in this exhibition that seem reminiscent of medical illustrations or studies that at one point would have been produced not for the sake of art but for the sake of spreading information. Identify several prints in which the artwork seems to recall some form of visual communication outside of "fine art".

Another aspect of printmaking history is that it has often been considered the most "democratic" art medium. Since prints are produced in multiples, they are often less "precious" than other art forms, such as a painting that can only be seen in a church or the home of a wealthy patron. Printmakers often produced work that was meant for the "masses". Artists such as Kathe Kollwitz and Francisco Goya are part of this tradition. There are a couple of pieces in this show that tap into that tradition, most notable A. Wolpa's "The Printmaker's Left". What does it say about artwork to have a piece in an exhibition that the viewer can actually take away?

Social satire has often been a part of the printmaker's subject matter. The artist George Grosz was known for his daring and radical critiques of German society. Find the print in this exhibition that is most firmly in the tradition of the work of Grosz.

Pressed and Pulled is the Department of Art's annual national juried printmaking exhibition. Each year Pressed and Pulled has a different juror, who selects the show from slides that artists have submitted for that purpose. The jurying is "blind", in that the juror does not know the identity of the artist that has submitted the work, thus insuring that every entrant has an equal chance of being accepted into the exhibition regardless of his or her previous accomplishments as an artist. In some ways the exhibition is a creative act by the juror as well as by the artists, as he selects the show the reflects his concerns and aesthetic.

This year's juror, Dean Dass from the University of Virginia, wrote an essay concerning his experience of jurying the show. You should read this essay and see if the work that the juror has chosen reflects the concerns and questions he raises in his statement. What follows is the juror's statement for Pressed and Pulled VIII. This statement is printed in the catalog for the exhibition, which is available to anyone visiting the show.

JURORıS STATEMENT

National survey exhibitions of printmaking are how we talk to each other and keep each other honest. In this way we keep our discipline lively. We can check to see who is doing good new work. Here we meet old friends and make new ones. For ³Pressed and Pulled VIII² it was easy to find an exhibition among the many entries for there were far too many wonderful prints than could be accommodated in the space allowed. Seeing the many fine entries reaffirms for me the strength and power of our chosen medium. I selected 64 pieces by 47 artists, from a pool of 461prints, books, and objects submitted by 161 artists. It was a pleasure and an honor to jury this exhibition. I trust those who live in this region of Georgia will recognize the achievements of these artists and the distinction that such a national survey of contemporary work can bring.

Yet seeing the many entries also brought to mind some of the difficulties of our medium. Printmaking is so craft-heavy, so technique-driven, as to be often relegated to the margins of the contemporary art world. People outside of our subspecialty have a hard time understanding our language and our focus on technical achievements. I felt there were many entries that focused on technical achievements to the neglect of more important issues. This is a phenomenon endemic to printmaking that shows no sign of abating in that it is as true as ever among the youngest generation. I think this is a complex topic and not easily summarized, but the traditions and the craftsmanship involved in our discipline are surely a kind of trap for the unwary. On the one hand, if it suits one to work tonally, in aquatint or mezzotint, or even monotype, and one wants to create a scathing critique of some aspect of our time (and who doesnıt?), it makes sense to look carefully at Goya. Working in a similar way but primarily in line one can look at Ensor. If one can project a personal identification in the landscape, and merge self and landscape, itıs useful to look at Segers. To cultivate a romantic and distanced self in opposition to the current time one can look to Munch or even Heyboer. Those who want to write and illustrate their own philosophies look to Blake. There is no end to these instances. You can provide better ones. To look into our traditions is part of our education. I think where we printmakers get into trouble is when we overtly mimic the form of these earlier masters, and then address the same issues as well. Both form and content are then regressive. We have to struggle to find our own new forms, or we have to address the issues that are new and specific to our time. This is hard to do. I write as one working within the field. We should try to keep our medium fluid and lively; we should not make illustrations after past masters. Nor should we make mere technical innovations and experiments. Without a doubt as I made the selections for this exhibition I rejected many fine prints due to these ideas I have firmly established for myself.

I find one of the most interesting veins in contemporary printmaking to be something we can call biotics. David Kiehl, Print Curator at the Whitney Museum, introduced me to this term. Coincidentally and almost at the same time I found it in the essays of Donna Haraway. In general terms Haraway is writing a feminist critique of science (and in particular of primate studies). In contemporary art and in printmaking, biotics can mean those who would fuse and conjoin photomicrographs, scientific illustration and genetic schema. Shifting scale between the full image of the body and, for instance, its DNA codes, these artists attempt to find a new poetry in the psychology of the fragment or try to assimilate these many new layers of information into a self-construction. Perhaps these fetishized new part-objects stand in for a whole that cannot be achieved. At any rate, I found many interesting prints that, broadly speaking, are a part of this movement. In this way it seems to me that aesthetics, ethics, ecology and politics start to become one field of research, and that is surely a good thing. This could help convince us of the prophetic nature of the work of Joseph Beuys. Perhaps printmaking, with its chemistry and lab-like conditions, attracts the pseudo-scientist. A more positive outlook sees these sensitive individuals attempting to integrate, metaphorically at least, the complex and at times overwhelming developments of our time. Working in this area, though, I think we should be careful to avoid the merely schematic and also avoid lecturing in a heavy handed moralizing manner.

Lastly I would like to comment on the many numbers of works submitted by (apparently) younger printmakers. This is often the case with exhibitions of this sort and it is a tendency I like very much. I like the earnestness of the younger printmakers; they feel like they have something to prove. They are not satisfied. They are working through the issues presented by their teachers and they wish to find new forms of expression. This dialogue is promising for the future of printmaking in this country.

Dean Dass

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