New Prints 2009/Autumn

Essayist: Richard Dupont, Artist, New York City, October 2009

Everything is a print nowadays. We inhabit a world of infinite reproductions. Even people are prints – maps of DNA. In the media and design worlds, all visual information is data – and can be “printed” in many different forms including three-dimensional forms. With the web, the matrix now engulfs everything. Even the Warholian methodology seems quaint, analogue. As it turns out, the world IS flat… and printed.

Art has reacted by moving backward and forward simultaneously. As artists grapple with a digital world, they are increasingly returning to all types of printmaking as they are to other ancient and long-dormant media. There’s a revival going on. In a global culture of instantaneity, printmaking is really slow. It’s as if artists are unconsciously attempting to reverse the cognitive dissonance caused by the fragmentation in the media by putting back together- pixel by pixel- the human brain. Hours spent accumulating actual hand-made human marks can be a cathartic panacea to the flickering (and fleeting) half truths of the desktop. This kind of activity can also tell us more, in many ways, about who we are and where we are going, than just shooting some digital video. It’s not, as one would assume, the same old argument resulting in the assertion of the primacy of the original over “the copy”. These days there are copies, and then there are copies, and then there are copies, etc. Prints are not copies. They are impressions. Like people they are unique with varying degrees of originality. They are both rare and abundant.

The magic of the print lies in the essence of the transfer. The transcription of an image from one physical surface to another is a deeply satisfying thing, and printmaking can become a sort of artistic religion. It’s been said many times before, but there is alchemy involved. Etching, engraving, lithography, woodcut, screenprint - all involve in their various processes a transformative potential. The best prints go Someplace Else. This metamorphosis can turn a hand-drawn line into a vibration of light, and can transform a digital image into a physical mark. However, what’s most exciting about printmaking is its ability to transform itself, and the notion of what constitutes a print is, like the universe, in a continuous state of expansion.

The array of what constitutes the matrix is also expanding. The traditional term given to the printing surface now, of course, has taken on a much broader meaning. Just as methods of transfer are constantly evolving, so are surfaces. Printmaking as a practice has evolved into numerous hybrids variously combining drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, bookmaking, animation and digital media. Categorization in general is becoming increasingly challenging. However, as the boundaries between media become more porous, art thrives. Often, it is visually exciting to not be so sure exactly what you are looking at. Paradoxically, artists who are often engaging in these cross pollinations are consciously then reapplying the new mutant forms to the traditional techniques. Playing new media off old is a major thread.

Artists get lost in the process. Time collapses. Like any artistic endeavor, one doesn’t know where one will end up. The immersion in a series of steps towards an unknown end is the thrilling part ‒ like an alpine hike on an unfamiliar trail. There is also often a collaborative element in the making of prints. This engagement with print workshops and master printmakers can be deeply enriching for artists, and the results of these collaborations are often more than the sum of the parts. In fact, there is a community of printmaking quite different from the global carnivalesque of the broader art market - artists, printmakers, publishers, curators, collectors and enthusiasts who are more often deeply involved in the dialogue and are in constant communication about new developments.

IPCNY is at the center of this community. An invaluable institution at a crucial time in the print world, IPCNY gives essential exposure to new, innovative and exciting works in printmaking. I would like to thank all the artists in the exhibition for their outstanding and original works, as well as Erin Donnelly, James Miller, Jose Roca, Jessica Weber and Maud Welles for selecting. This process can be difficult given the sheer volume of submissions- a testament to the increasing number of artists making good prints. Keep making them!

Richard Dupont, Artist, New York City, October 2009