The Silkscreen Medium

Many people know about Silkscreen printing, also called Serigraph, from its widespread use in popular culture, but they may not realize this medium is one of the oldest, time-tested printing techniques. Originating in ancient China during the Song Dynasty years of 960–1279 AD, silk fabric was used as a strong, fine-grain mesh to press ink through in what resulted in a very even tone of color across a large surface. Over the course of its evolution through time this simple premise carried across many cultures and art movements, accessible to many more people due to being free of the need for heavy equipment or facilities.

Undoubtedly popularized by Andy Warhol in the 1960s pop culture scene in New York City, silkscreening has become a favorite image-making method, proving to carry the dynamism and inventiveness of some of our greatest modern artists.

Guggenheim Museum is a classic Lichtenstein piece with his infamous dots, an original edition silkscreen he designed for his first solo exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York in 1969. As a major innovator and trailblazer of the pop art movement alongside Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others, Lichtenstein’s work often shows the prolific combination of fine art proficiency mixed with everyday art vitality.

In a tall and monumental signed piece created by Josef Albers in 1972 for The 10th New York Film Festival, the abstract geometric drawing is sharply rendered, crisp and clean, but with a matte-finish ink that gives it a rich, warm sensation. The thick paper and incising blue silkscreen ink chosen are lush as well, giving the piece a gorgeous presence. Albers was known for his Interaction of Color which he published in 1963, where he presented his theory that colors were governed by an internal and deceptive logic, the very rare first edition of which has a limited printing of only 2,000 copies and contained 150 silkscreen plates. The vibrancy of silkscreen inks was something that lent itself well to his obsessions with color, and this NY Film Festival print is no exception.