From Rembrandt to Andy Warhol Printmaking ForumTime：2017-10-27
On July 13th, DoBe WE" organized a printmaking forum named “From Rembrandt to Andy Warhol” in Shanghai Florence - Sino Italian Design Center - Florence Base that is operated by DoBe Group. It's one of the series events during the International Community Festival. The president of Il Bisonte Printmaking Workshop Mr. Simone Guaita, the former dean of printmaking department of University of Florence and art director of Il Bisonte Printmaking Workshop Mr. Rodolfo Ceccotti were invited as speakers to interpret the features of printmaking from the perspective of the art history.
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Mr. Simone Guaita is the second-generation leader of Il Bisonte Printmaking Workshop. As the well-known curator and art theorist, he has organized many exhibitions and events in Florence, New York, London and other cities and helped Il Bisonte Printmaking Workshop becoming a famous art organization.
Mr. Rodolfo Ceccotti is a distinguished artist in oil painting and printmaking, who was born in the year of 1945 in Florence. He used to teach at Accademia di Belle Arti Carrara and Florence National Academy of Fine Arts of Italy, and held more 25 worldwide exhibitions with numerous honors.
As one type of independent art, printmaking was invented far later than oil painting and sculpture. As a result of its technology limitation, it existed as handcraft that was only used in printings’ publishment. There were clear job divisions as engravers and printers who are responsible for craving and printing separately. At that time, printmaking was not considered as art and both engravers and printers did not have the right to create.
However, the German artist Albrecht Dürer broke the tradition of printmaking by using more accurate lines to present printmaking and finally he gave a new presentation of it with fascinating textures.
In the 17th century, Rembrandt applied etching into traditional printmaking. The impression of printmaking was no longer related to exquisite lines and craving, but it was vested with more freedom and artistic expression for artists to create.
Unlike regular printmaking, etching is about adding acidic corrosion coppers after craving, in order to present different blocks by melting lines together. This is a new technique that helps artworks with stronger three-dimensional effects.
With the use of intense chiaroscuro in printmaking, Rembrandt was a magician in the art who successfully created many masterpieces to generations of people.
Followed by evolutions in different periods, printmaking has become more like a combination of concepts and techniques rather than an expression of pure techniques. Back to 1960s, Andy Warhol, the avant-courier of American pop art was inspired by the industrial production of screen printing and applied it into printmaking. Application of the replicates and the industrial mass-production has developed screen printing to a very popular type of art.