CUTTINGS

PRINTMAKING TODAY PUBLISHED BY CELLO PRESS LTD ©2016 www.printmakingtoday.co.uk WINTER 2016 PRINTMAKING TODAY 21

Does a bigger book make a biggersplash? Taschen’s new sumo-sizedbook is a lavish monograph onDavid Hockney RA’s stellar career.Hockney himself chose over 450works: paintings, photo-collages andcomposites, iPad drawings, stagedesigns and prints, accompaniedwith a handwritten statementlooking back at his sixty-year career.‘I don’t tend to live in the past,’he commented. ‘Working on thisbook, I see quite how much I havedone.’ The huge book is supple-mented with another 680-pagevolume that is a chronology ofhis works and writings, and comeswith a jazzy custom-designed bookstand. The first 1,000 copies inthe edition also contain a limitededition ink-jet print. Hockney willhave a retrospective at TateBritain, London from 9 Feb 2017and David Hockney: The CompleteEarly Etchings 1961-1964 opens on3 Feb at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert(hh-h.com), London.

The world’s largest collection ofpaper peepshows (concertinatunnel books printed with charmingscenes) has been gifted to theV&A Museum. Jacqueline andJonathan Gestetner collected some360 works over the years, andwere able to gift this outstandingcollection to the National ArtLibrary. ‘We are thrilled that,through the cultural gifts scheme,our collection, charting the originof the paper peepshow from the1820s to the present day, whichhas given us immense pleasureover the years, will now join theV&A’s collections where it can beenjoyed by many others.’ Thepeepshows commemorate eventssuch as Queen Victoria’s coronation,construction of the Thames tunnelby Marc and Isambard KingdomBrunel, as well as showing miniatureforests, cityscapes, interiors ofbuildings and soldiers on parade.

In Brief

Taschen presents David Hockney Sumo:Benedikt Taschen (left), Hockney (right),at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016

Like discovering Willy Wonka’sfactory does exist, a recent trip tothe Centre for Fine Print Research(CFPR) at the University of theWest of England (UWE) was aneye-opening experience. Dr CarinnaParraman demonstrated her printingmachine: a modified robotic armon a double caterpillar frame. Thearm dips a chunky brush into apalette of browns and then dutifullywhirs to the middle of the canvas andstarts to apply the paint, ploppingdown to a mid-brush height and thenmaking an elliptical lift, very muchlike a parody of an artistic stroke.

Modern magic at CFPR, BristolThe movements are coordinatedby computer – blindly followinginstructions – that introduces anelement of chance and disaster tothe printed image.

Dr Paul O’Dowd was experi-menting with heated cornstarchplastic: over 200˚C and it squeezesout like a paste from a nozzle, andcan be built into forms such as bowlsand vessels, or spun into elegantlacy forms with optional hairythreads like a drug-fueled spider.While the toxicity of melted plasticraises questions, printing ceramicsdirectly from a 3D printer seemslike a more natural substitute formaking fantastical shapes that areimpossible to build by hand. Thelab revealed printed ceramic formssuch as strutted pyramids anddelicate ghosts and beetles whichwere self glazing, though thebrittle nature of the patentedceramic powder was not as strongor dense as traditional clay.

Finding modern adaptationsfor traditional print techniquesformed the core of the work withProf Stephen Hoskins, who showedvideos of the ceramic transfertechniques at the great Britishpotteries of Spode and Stafford.There, reportedly, the youngest

engravers are over 76 years old, sothey have digitized and laser-cutreplacement plates to give youngengravers time to develop. Theseintaglio plates are printed ontofine potters’ tissue with a press,then, while still wet, the prints aretransferred to the 3D form withremarkable skill: hand burnishingwith a stiff bristle brush.

Also revisiting traditionaltechniques, Dr Peter Moseley’s PhDresearch project at CFPR investigatedthe texturality and tonality of earlyphotomechanical printing processes.This resulted in some powerfulphotographs of elderly sitters: thevelvety shadows and continuoustones capturing a forceful portrayalof spirit. His print, Angela, has beenselected for the Taylor WessingPhotography Portrait Prize at theNational Portrait Gallery (until 26 Feb 2017). Remarkably it is the first time that an intaglio printhas been selected for this show.

Angela (2016) by Peter Moseley. Polymerphotogravure printed on Somerset satinpaper 300gms, 450 x 370 mm

Noah Breuer, a printmaker based in UC Davis California, has beendiscovering how his family historywas rooted in print.

In July, Noah writes, I visited theMuseum of Textiles in CeskáSkalice in the Czech Republic,where I continued research on myfamily’s former textile printingbusiness. Started in 1902 by mygreat-great-grandfather, Carl, andhis sons Ernst and Felix, the CarlBreuer and Sons business includeda thriving factory in Bohemia[now the Czech Republic]. In1942 the factory, along with allother Jewish-owned property inGerman-occupied areas, was seized and sold to Nazi-approvedowners; later, three generations of my family were murdered in Auschwitz.

I visited the factory in DvurKralove, Czech Republic first in2006 with my father. In 2014 wediscovered that the Museum of

Textiles in nearbyCeská Skalice wasthe home tohundreds oforiginal fabricsamples, handdrawn and printeddesigns andoriginal woodenprinting blocks.This year I madescans of severaldozen items asreference for futureartwork. ThroughPhotoshop,drawing andprinting, I am working with mynewly found images.

Right now, I am most interestedin printing on fabric: not somuch in recreating the designs,but using them as my muse. I made some large (40 x 30 inch)woodcuts on silk this summer,carved with a big CNC routerhere at UC Davis. UC Davis

also has a well-equipped SurfaceDesign department with a digitalfabric printer which I’ve beenexperimenting with as well. I amcontinually exploring the fusion of traditional print techniqueswith new materials and technology.In producing this work, I amreclaiming the history of my family’swork and designs.

Future fusion

Dr Paul O’Dowd’s printed extruded plasticforms at CFPR. Photograph by Wuon-Gean Ho

Pilot Hankie (2016) by Noah Breuer. Screenprint, 560 x 560 mm