Audacious Relief: Printmaking from Tradition to Experiment
Instructor: Jonathan Palmer
10 Sessions / Saturdays, June 15–August 17
Time: 10 am–1 pm
Location: Studios 1&2
Number: PH1001
Tuition: $400
Dating back nearly 2,500 years, relief printmaking has made a bold mark throughout the history of art—and its potential is still being explored today. The ancient Egyptians carved out patterns on wood and printed on cloth while such contemporary artists as Swoon install large scale cut-out relief prints on the streets of NYC and major museums worldwide. This course will explore all of the traditional methods of relief printing as students learn how to carve, register, and print in relief from a diverse range of materials including wood, linoleum, plaster, Plexiglas, cardboard, metal, and stone. We will cover single and multicolor techniques by making reduction and multi-color block prints; hand printing techniques will be emphasized, though the printing press will be utilized as well. Once the traditional techniques have been taught, students will understand the unlimited ways of achieving a relief print, and be encouraged to experiment with a wide range of carving surfaces and paper. This course will primarily cover Western printing techniques but will spend one session going over Japanese woodblock printing. The class will also examine and discuss prints by artists such as Kathe Kollwitz, Picasso, Leonard Baskin, Albrecht Durer, Hiroshige, Yoshitoshi, and others.
No prerequisite.
Jonathan Palmer received his BFA degree, graduating cum laude, from Syracuse University in 1992. In May of 2013, he will graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design with an MFA degree in Printmaking. Palmer’s art—encompassing drawing, relief printing, screenprinting, lithography, intaglio, found materials, hot glass casting, bio-mimicry, video, installation, and cut paper—investigates the nature of environmental origin and its search for balance through understanding the disregarded aspects of urban habitats. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States including Providence R.I., New York City, San Francisco, Mendocino California, and Taos New Mexico and overseas at Kyoto Seika University in Japan. His work is included in the print collections of Syracuse University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Yale University, and dozens of private collections.