The Gibbes Museum of Art > Charleston > South Carolina > US Art exhibition
Printmaking > Art exhibition
Printmaking. Drawn from the Gibbes permanent collection
The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina
November 14, 2008 - April 26, 2009
The Gibbes Museum of Art will showcase an exhibition entitled Printmaking. Drawn from the Gibbes permanent collection. This exhibition will explore various printmaking processes from the nineteenth century through the present.
Though printmaking technology was developed in China as early as the second century AD, it did not appear in Europe until approximately 1400. Therefore, images were rare in the Western world prior to the fifteenth century, as each one had to be created by hand. Printmaking technology allowed for hundreds or even thousands of images to be created from a single carved block of wood or plate of metal. This revolutionized the distribution of images as printmaking began to flourish in Europe during the fifteenth century.
During the colonial and early national periods, American printmakers primarily utilized the medium to copy paintings and distribute images of historical events, famous battles, and portraits. American interest in the printmaking medium as an independent art form developed during the nineteenth century, led by artists such as John James Audubon, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and James A. M. Whistler.
The collection of the Gibbes Museum of Art contains over three thousand works on paper, including prints created using a variety of techniques. This exhibition explores the breadth of the print collection, while focusing on the specific printmaking processes used to create the works. To help make connections between technique and the finished product, this installation pairs prints with rarely exhibited plates, blocks, and printmaking tools from the museum archives. Artists in the Printmaking exhibition include Alfred Hutty, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith and James A. M. Whistler.
The Printmaking exhibition is a prelude to the upcoming exhibition in the Rotunda Gallery: The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection. That exhibition will run from December 19 through March 22, 2009 and will feature 50 prints from the era between the Great Depression and World War II.
GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART
135 Meeting Street
Charleston, South Carolina 29401
Previous exhibitions at the Gibbes
Rodin: In His Own Words, Selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
Lorna Simpson
William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961 - 2005
Southern Masterpieces: Charleston before 1835
Like Tears in Rain
Now!
"A Lonely Soul": The Art of Edward Jennings
Otto Neumann: Modern Expressions
The Charleston Renaissance: An Artistic Reawakening
