Step into the Printeresting Time Machine: we’re going back more than a quarter-century to read this 1983 New York Times article “American Painters Are Now Printmakers Too.”
Once upon a time, print people were not like the rest of us. In all but name, they formed a secret society. They had their clubs, their magazines and their coded language. Their talk was of states and stones, rockers and roulettes, foul biting and burr. What they were arguing about was usually a small sheet of paper. And the image – like a celebrated automobile of some 50 years ago – came in any color you wanted, provided that it was black…
There are still good printmakers who do nothing else. But since World War II, and more especially since 1960, the best printmakers tend to be the best painters also. Master printers make it possible for them to perform feats of technical address that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. A huge new public now sees the print as a part of its birthright, along with the ice box and the air conditioner.
The “ice box”? I was just a kid in 1983, but I seem to remember that our kitchen had a refrigerator.
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