Visual Identification of Printmaking Processes

Artists for more than six centuries, from Dürer and Rembrandt to Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, have made prints, exploring the particular artistic possibilities of various printmaking media to create “multiple originals.” While an artist may utilize photomechanical processes in making a print, “print” as it is used here does not refer to a reproduction, but to a work of art which results from the artist’s interaction with and response to various printmaking media, among them, woodcut, etching, lithography, screenprint and now digital processes, which allow an image to be multiplied.

The Print Collection staff can assist in identifying a print and the printmaking process used as time allows. However, the Library staff cannot make statements of authenticity.

Gascoigne, Bamber. How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Ink Jet. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1986. Print Collection Desk MDI 87-2309. Illustrated guide to identifying both original and photo-reproductive processes, with a glossary of printmaking terms.

Griffiths, Antony. Prints and Printmaking. London: British Museum Publications, 1980; 2^nd edition, 1996. MDB 87-576. Informative and readable survey of the history of printmaking, emphasizing visual identification of techniques and a glossary of terms.

Ivins. William. How Prints Look. Revised by Marjorie B. Cohn. Boston: Beacon Press, 1987. MDB 89-3216. Basic text on identifying the main printmaking media, with new annotated bibliography by Marjorie Cohn.