PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V | PART VI | PART VII

 

Part V: Historical Scholarly Writings, Biographies, etc.:

Essays resulting from research within the field, retrospectives on the history of prints and printmaking, art histori cal texts, and artist biographies.

Chambers, Emma. “From Chemical Process to the Aesthetics of Omission: Etching and the Languages of Art Criti cism in Ninetheenth-century Britain.” Art History. Vol. 20 Issue 4 Page 556 December 1997

This article explores the development of aesthetic theories of the etched line in the 1860s and the role of language in redefining the identity of etching and strengthening its claims for status and legitimacy within the established academic hierarchy. It maps out a shift from the use of technical to artistic terminology as a means of emphasizing intellectual over manual input by the etcher and establishing etching as an original rather than a reproductive art.

Doran, Valerie C. “Xu Bing: a Logos for the Genuine Experience.” Orientations: Internet Edition.

http://publications.kaleden.com/articles/3245.html

Valerie Dorian discusses the highlights of Xu Bing’s career as an artist concerned with calligraphy, print, and repro duction. She emphasizes, in particular, the strong communicative effects of his monumental works “Ghosts Pounding the Wall” (for which Xu Bing made rubbings of a section of the Great Wall) and “Book from the Sky” (which used a complex printing method in its production). She discusses both the specific issues of the printed word as well as the greater issues of identity and location that Xu Bing’s works incite.

Gaiter, Colette. “Visualizing a Revolution: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Newspaper.” AIGA. 2005.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/visualizing-a-revolution-emory-douglas- and-the-black-panther-new

In order to prove her argument that the Black Panthers were neither a terrorist group nor a band of benign revolu tionaries (but, rather, were ideologically somewhere in between these two extremes), Colette Gaiter looks at Emory Douglas’ artwork as it was featured in the Black Panther newspaper. Because these pieces were so representative and influential for the Black Panthers, Gaiter is able to use them as windows into the more complex and nuanced (violent, but human-rights oriented) goals behind the movement.

Glover, Danny, and Amiri Baraka. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas. Ed. Sam Durant. Minne apolis: Rizzoli International Publications, Incorporated, 2007.

This book takes a detailed look at Emory Douglas’ involvement and influence with the Black Panthers and the formu lation of their ideology.

Lewison, Jeremy. “Projects and Portfolios: Narrative and Structure.” Contemporary British Art in Print. Paragon P.

Jeremy Lewison defines the various kinds of print portfolios that have distinguished themselves (collections based on a narrative, technical, or simply authorial theme), and outlined why print artists have historically resorted to this medium of publication. By doing so, Lewison necessarily describes the innovations and possibilities that the print portfolio has brought to the printmaking as well as the larger art-making world. Lewison also introduces the impact that Charles Booth-Clibborn’s Paragon Press had on the world of prints and print portfolios, providing a chronology of Booth-Clibborn’s early career and interests in the genre.

Mehta, Julie. “Rolling Out Wallpaper: Artists Are Using Off-The-Wall Themes and Techniques to Design Wallpapers That Demand Attention.” 2004.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_2_31/ai_113301250

Julie Mehta, on the occasion of the On the Wall exhibits held at Philadelphia’s The Fabric Workshop and at Rhode Island School of Design, writes a historical retrospective of the art form and its development from a functional aspect of the home to a fine arts one. While addressing the form’s appeal, Mehta also lists several examples of particularly successful wallpaper designs.

Mellen, Roger. “An Expanding Public Sphere: Women and Print in Colonial Virginia; 1736-1776.”

Women in colonial Virginia had a greater role in the eighteenth-century world of print and the public sphere than previously recognized. This research focuses on less-elite printed matter: books for women, newspapers, and popular almanacs. Women were indeed involved in public debates in print even before the Stamp Act controversy. This goes beyond the elites to the middling sort. This paper concludes that Virginia women were involved in the debates that prefaced the Revolution, an idea that has implications for understanding how people of the separate colonies conceived and formed a new nation.

Platzker, David and Elizabeth Wyckoff. Hard Pressed : 600 Years of Prints and Process. New York, NY: Hudson Hill Press. 2000

Published in conjunction with the International Print Center New York’s Inaugural exhibition, Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process, examines the relationship between aesthetics and technology throughout the history of printmaking and into the present. The essays by curators David Platzker, independent curator and Director of Printed Matter in Manhattan, and Elizabeth Wyckoff Ph.D., Print Specialist at the New York Public Library situate the fine art print in a larger, historical context, and also bring to the fore the richness and creativity of the printmaking process.

Saunders, Gill and Rosie Miles. Prints Now: Directions and Definitions. London: V&A Publication, 2006.

Prints Now: Directions and Definitions is a survey of the changes that took place in the field of printmaking over the past two decades. The text breaks the medium into several categories, such as 3D prints, site-specific work, and mul tiples. It also provides examples of artists working in these modes.

Tallman, Susan. Contemporary Print: From Pre-Pop to Post Modern. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995.

Susan Tallman’s book narrates the history of printmaking from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Her survey covers a range of 170 print artists (and 334 illustrations), starting with the print revival and the advent of collaborative litho graphic print shops. However, her primary interest is an analysis of the artwork she takes under consideration. The historical perspective, for Tallman, is therefore secondary to the development and evolution of ideas and aesthetics.

Whang, Vanessa, San San Wong, Rachel Cooper, Maribel Alvarez, Cristian Amigo, Uttara Coorlawala, Madhulika Khandelwal, Susan Kunimatsu, Hallie Stone, Khatharya Um, Paul Yoon, Amy Kitchener, and Betsy Peterson. “Artis tic Production and Cultural Identity in U.S. Immigrant and Diasporic Communities.” Asia Society (2005).

These researchers from the Asia Society cite the rising awareness of the dissipation of a racial majority in the U.S. (and the correspondent rise of immigrant cultures) as their prompt to look more carefully at the creative outputs of artists working in communities generally considered to be at the margins of the American cultural mainstream. Through eight case studies and two articles, they question whether the role of art will change within the American culture and society and how the arts generated within these almost-separate communities will interact with mainstream arts.

Zack, Jessica W. “The Black Panthers Advocated Armed Struggle. Emory Douglas’ Weapon of Choice? the Pen.” The San Francisco Chronicle. 2007.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/28/DDGIFOS2F61.DTL

Jessica Werner Zach briefly summarizes the work of Emory Douglas as minister of culture for the Black Panthers. In this role, Douglas art directed the Black Panther newspaper and filled its pages with the stirring images that influenced and epitomized the Black Panther movement through 1979.