The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History - Review

Mickenberg discusses Wayne's mission at length in his essay on university and non-profit print workshops and the challenges facing them, including marketing and fundraising. As director of the Block Gallery, Mickenberg has championed prints through intelligent exhibitions and symposia, and the books documenting his projects invariably represent substantial contributions to the literature (though unfortunately always flawed by the absence of a professional editor). Another longtime champion of prints is critic Susan Tallman, whose regular column, "Prints and Multiples," in Arts Magazine was a rare example of informed writing about prints in the mainstream art press. When Arts ceased publication, and Tallman moved to Amsterdam, she left a hiatus that has never been filled. But now we have her book, The Contemporary Print from Pre-Pop to Postmodern, distinguished by the same clear, sophisticated, and sensitive analyses of printed art that made her column so memorable.

The Contemporary Print covers both European and North American developments over the past four decades. Because Hults's Print in the Western World ends abruptly around 1980, with the present enthusiasm for prints gaining momentum, Tallman's volumemakes a wonderful sequel, but it also stands alone as an indispensable survey of a fascinating field. Appendices include a bibliography, index, and short histories of nearly forty print workshops and publishers, from Atelier 17 and Mixografia (Mexico City/Los Angeles) to Waddington Graphics (London). In a section of brief artist biographies, each followed by a mini-bibliography of its own, Tallman treats us to concise summaries of the artists' concerns, rather than the standard lists of educational institutions and one-person exhibitions. This approach typifies her remarkable strength. Above all, she is an interpreter of art, not just a reporter of events and influences, and a search for the meaning of images remains her primary quest.

In eight chapters, beginning in the late fifties with artists who sought painterly effects in intaglio and lithography, and ending in the nineties with photographers and media-critique artists turning also to prints, Tallman presents a narrative of great understanding and breadth, while demonstrating an unfailing commitment to the description and analysis of specific works of art. The book is profusely illustrated in black-and-white throughout, while color plate sections are inserted after every second chapter. Tallman is a gifted writer who inspires appreciation of prints as diverse as Willem de Kooning's sensuous, tuschey lithographic abstractions and Joseph Kosuth's dry, photoengraved linguistic-conceptual exercises. Like Hults, she abjures detailed accounts of printmaking techniques, stating boldly her conviction that these "are (or should be) merely a means to an end" (12). Yet she also comprehends how ideas can emerge from the very materials and processes of art making, so that her readings never depend solely on iconography, but issue from a profound grasp of the physicality of the objects of her study.