Impressions of the 20th Century

Drawing on the V and A's collection of 20th-century prints, this concise history of printmaking is presented through the work of internationally renowned artists - all of whom relished the print medium as an important form of expression. Every year of the 20th century is represented by a print o r set of prints. From the first half of the 20th century, early British masters of etching such as Walter Sickert and Augustus John are included, while Paul Nash and Eric Gill exemplify the 1920s to 1930s fashion for woodblock-printing. Works from Picasso, Matisse, Vuillard and Chagall sit alongside prints from German artists Paul Klee and Franz Marc. Italian work includes an apocalyptic illustration by De Chirico; and El Lissitzky's abstract Proun III shows the powerful inventiveness of Russian art in the 1920s. From America are prints by Edward Hopper and Martin Lewis. After the World War II the scale and ambition of lithographs and screen-prints began to rival contemporary paintings.
All the key American exponents, such as Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Ron Kitaj are represented, while in Britain, artists like Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Eduardo Paolozzi and Patrick Caulfield were pushing forward the boundaries of the fine art print. Works by artists from culturally diverse communities add an exciting new dimension to the choice of prints featured. Equally exciting is the ever-increasing diversity of printmaking - whether crossing over into installation art or incorporating the human body as both image and tool. This book challenges our notion of what constitutes a fine art print and poses intriguing questions as to how the medium might develop in the next millennium.