Graphics

Graphic (Greek γραφική [ τέχνη ], graphics [ téchne ], " the writing / descriptive [ art ]") is in the broadest sense of the collective term for all artistic or technical drawings as well as their manual typographical reproduction. In the closest term to use graphic relates solely to the artistic printmaking, which belongs to the visual arts. An original print is produced on its own, independent of templates and the intention to use the techniques of printmaking for artistic expression.

Outline of printmaking methods

The printmaking processes used in the artistic field can be divided into the following groups:

• By printing ( serigraphy, silkscreen)
• Planographic printing: Lithography
• High-pressure processes: woodcut, wood engraving, cut shot, white line cut dough pressure, chiaroscuro, camieu cut, linocut, mounting pressure / material pressure, Zinkätzung

• Gravure printing process: Etching: etching, aquatint, photogravure, stipple, Weichgrundätzung ( Vernis Mou )
• Manual engraving process: copper engraving, steel engraving, Punzenstich, point engraving, mezzotint ( mezzotint ), drypoint, chalk style

• Various methods, such as monotype and glass block print

Due to the ongoing technical development of artists using new methods such as inkjet printing and dye sublimation printing

The history of printmaking

All graphical techniques were not developed at the time of its development for a specific artistic use and therefore not initially specifically used by artists. The Einblattholzschnitt was created in 1400 due to a growing demand for devotional images. Cheaper, faster and more productive than with the previously manually drawn in monasteries thumbs up was the desire of broad population groups under private ownership satisfying image. They were sold in monasteries and pilgrimage sites in order to leave to attend the magical effect of the " archetypes " with their help the believers. The Einblattholzschnitte - understood today as the oldest graphic art in Central Europe - presented for their owners represent commodities, of whom one did his private devotions in their own homes.

The emergence of the woodcut is associated with the spread of papermaking. The en masse and in comparison to the parchment manufacture much cheaper and faster production of the paper was the decisive prerequisite for this technique, which was soon followed by the engraving. The earliest sheet that was conducted in the engraved copperplate, dated from 1446, making it only a few decades younger than the oldest dated wooden pressure. Compared to woodblock allowed the engraving richer presentation and expression, because here almost continuously all tones between palest gray and black could be achieved, and not - as in the woodcut - only the distinction between white and black. Until the development of wood engraving in the early 19th century by Thomas Bewick the engraving was the preferred technique of book illustration.

Artistic led Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) both the woodcut and the engraving to perfection. From its large graphical masterpieces Examples are the cycle life of Mary (woodcut, 1502/1505 ) and the two leaves Knight, Death and the Devil ( copper engraving, 1513) and Melencolia I ( engraving, 1514) called. Dürer has also seen just as Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael the importance of printmaking to spread their own artistic reputation and generate income for the distribution of leaves. For example, Dürer has moved its print cycles in their own publishing company and sold through the book trade. The distribution of graphic prints also had the consequence that new artistic developments that became popular throughout Europe quickly and evenly.

The time-consuming manual work process by which the lines were buried in the pressure plate when copper engraving, has been simplified by the development of etching. Here, the plate is processed by chemical etching. The earliest etchings date back to the year 1513th The etching did not reach the imaging precision of engraving and thus replaced this means of expression not as the main medium of book illustration from, but they expanded the printing techniques to the opportunity to play the individual drawing style. Early masters of this technique were about Matthäus Merian and Wenceslas Hollar.

But even the limited etching printmaking still on the appearance of lines. That changed with the scraping technique (also called mezzotint ), which developed Ludwig von Siegen ( 1609-1680 ). It provides a uniform Flächenton could first be achieved for all areas of the image. This was done by a very labor-intensive roughening the plate. The technique of aquatint, which was developed 1765-1768 by Jean Baptiste Leprince, replace this manual process by a chemo- technical.

With the development of lithography by Alois Senefelder to 1803, the chemo- technical rationalization of printing techniques continued. The production of printing plates spread and accelerated, thus this technique was also suitable for the rapidly spreading daily press. For the artists not only a new means of expression originated but it also opened up new professional fields: they were to newspaper subscribers and caricaturists such as Honoré Daumier.

Features of a graphics deduction

Original and reproduction

While, according to popular opinion, the term of the original image involves the property of uniqueness, any print graphic print is ( unless it is a photo-mechanical reproduction) considered original. It does not matter how many copies of the print are available. As uniqueness here is the expression of artistic ideas, concepts, and ideas understood, which could only be realized with the technology of printing. Lothar Lang writes: " ... [ the original graphic ] has only their equipment at hand specific expression, which can be realized only by the means of the graphical method. In this respect, printmaking is by no other visual arts replaceable and dissolve in any other medium of the pictorial: The uniqueness of printmaking can not be questioned. "

Was once the definition that an original graphic is present when the invention and the embodiments entirely by hand by the same artist are and it has been produced to the exclusion of all ( photo - ) mechanical methods, this definition does not intervene in view of the development of modern methods of printing technology more. Many artists today incorporate photomechanical processes, use photo negatives, work with offset printing, etc. Such a narrow definition would be the work of many important artists such as Léger, Rouault, builder and Vasarely exclude. Today, a valid reason is the definition of original artwork of Karl Graak: " In a printmaking it then is a original if it is the only binding realization of a directed the technique used artistic conception, if the work is not yet even so in a other technology can exist. "

A reproduction print on the other hand is made for artistically finished model. It is the mechanical transmission of an autonomous work of art such as a painting or a drawing in a graphic print technology.

Edition and deduction

The single, produced by the printing process sheet is called deduction, the total number of prints is called the edition. To determine the size of the edition, the right of the artist. Remained earlier by the material-induced wear of the printing form ( for example, a zinc or copper plate ) limits the size of the edition of prints to a small number, now allows the possibility of Verstählung the pressure plate also has a very large circulation. At high pressure, the graphics support is usually between 20 and 100 prints.

The limitation of the support by the artists he recorded by hand on the sheet, not on the plate, is ultimately a value determination. The lower the edition, the more valuable the deduction. A quality characteristic is a low trigger point at a modern graphics only at a unverstählten drypoint, because here every following pressure causes a larger plate wear.

Are the deductions an edition and the accompanying sample and artist prints made ​​, it is customary to make the disk unusable. This happens, for example, by attaching crossed several cuts on the plate.

Signature and numbering

The handwritten signature on a work by the artist in question guarantees that it is an original printmaking, in which the printing form was created by the artist himself and was drawn by hand printing process and limited edition from him or a printer. Mostly pencil is used because a pencil signature difficult wegzuradieren or modify, without damaging the paper fibers for the signature. The signature is typically mounted in the lower right corner. The eventual title of the graph is in the middle.

The edition is numbered in sequence after printing. A printmaking, which carries, for example, the marking 100/20, is the 20th printing an edition of 100 pieces. The numbering is usually noted in the lower left corner of the trigger.

Autogenous pressure and external pressure

For a deduction, it may be the inherent pressure of an artist. However, it is quite common that the artist can effect the deduction by a printer, that is a highly skilled craftsman. A master printer guarantees the highest technical perfection. Frequently it is known which printer for the artist carried out the deductions:

• Horst Arloth, Leipzig, for Bernhard Heisig and Gerhard Old Bourg
• Atelier Fernand Mourlot, Paris, for Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Arno Breker, Salvador Dalí, Jean Dubuffet
• Atelier Clot Toulouse -Lautrec, Lacourier
• Atelier Desjobert for Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall
• The Lithodrucker Ehrhardt and son, Dresden for Otto Dix and Hans Theo Richter
• Hartmut Frielinghaus for Horst Janssen
• William Garrett for Thomas Bewick
• A lithographic studio Leipzig for Neo Rauch, Matthias Wei, Rolf Münzner, Christoph Ruckhäberle, John Rochhausen, Tilo
• Upper grave press for R. A. Penck and Strawalde

Preferred pieces of traditional graphics

Some prints (maximum 10 per cent of the edition) are marked with "EA" or " Epreuve d' artiste". These are so-called artist prints that are printed aside from the edition sold in advance for the artist himself. Serious it is when an artist also numbered this series. This is to distinguish from the normal numbering in Roman numerals, eg " EA / IV " is also common, the term " hc " or " hors de commerce" ( " not for trade "). In the UK, these deductions are also marked with " artist's proof".

Proofs are state proofs (also epreuve d' etat ) incurred while working on the plate and are often marked with P / A ( proof ). The proof requires a further change in the work. You can be particularly instructive because they provide insight into the working methods of the artist and because the creation of the work can be traced to them. In the etchings of Rembrandt are 7-9 states are not uncommon, with Käthe Kollwitz, there are deductions from the 11th state in Picasso you know up to 30 state proofs. These unique, often including color different from the later edition are particularly prized by collectors and are more desirable, the older and more famous the artist is. The deduction from the final state of a print medium, which is made before the condition is referred to as EE ( Epreuve d' Essai ) marked.

Grant deductions are deductions that are printed in addition to rest, in order to eventually replace a faulty deduction can.

Variant. The variant is available in the colored graph. Thus, in a lithograph in 3 colors is the pressure of a further, fourth color variant. The Woodblock Prints by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, for example, exist in numerous versions. Variants (as well as the state prints) detected in the work directories.

Remarque prints. Sometimes artists make on the edge of a stone or an etching plate, a sign or a sketch for the etching sample in order to control the effect of the etching liquid can. The sketch is usually removed prior to production runs. Sometimes, however, this Remarques stop and appear not only on the proofs, but on all prints. These deductions are called then Remarque prints.

Preferred printing prints on specially called exclusive paper, which is not used for normal support. In general, they are numbered using Roman numerals.

List of Works

List of included in chronological order, divided into techniques all known works of an artist and their description, which is often supplemented by illustrations. They are created as a rule only for very important artists. List of Works can see in large libraries or in so-called copper engraving cabinets.

Graphics in technical disciplines and media technology

In the technical disciplines and media technology, the term graphic for illustrations ( partly also sketches ), which can be reduced to basic geometric shapes. Typical examples are stroke and line images (company logos, some icons ). As images are called contrast images that are not composed of basic geometric shapes - especially photo-realistic images.

In the context of data formats, images and graphics are often grouped under the term graphic formats. The graphic formats can be distinguished between vector graphics and raster graphics. For raster graphics also borrowed from the English term bitmap is used.

As an illustration of television news reports that always current graphic is used.

For some graphics, the term is used GFX.

Graphical professions

To the graphic occupations include:

• Printer
• Form Schneider
• Customer Service Position
• Graphic artist
• Kopigrafiker
• Copper engraver
• Media designer for digital and print
• Polygraf
• Webdesigner