Page 71 - Studio International - December 1967

Supplement December 1967

Lithographs, and original prints

Experiment as an individual. There is no given starting point. Once an approach

is agreed on, the experimentation is aimed in that direction. The
in screenprinting more we work with an artist the greater the rapport, the greater our
insight into his way of working. We have been able to develop with
Paolozzi and Kitaj furthest, experimentally, because we have pro­
duced most prints for these artists, and know the directions in which
our experiments should be aimed. Of course they have pushed us as
well. Artists work in different ways. Sometimes one just gets a
pencil sketch; the artist will be here during proofing to dictate the
colours, etc. Sometimes, as in the case of Paolozzi, we're given a
collage. A Kitaj print which we are about to start working on arrived
from California by mail as a page of instructions, a small pencil
sketch, and about twenty photographs from newspapers and maga­
Christopher Prater zines. The first proof is the beginning on which we and Kitaj start
• working. Harold Cohen is the opposite; the whole thing happens
here in his presence and the demand on us is for speed in proofing
Kelpra started as commercial printers about ten years ago. In 1960-61 the colours and .multi-colours which provide him with a working
they produced prints for Gordon House, followed a year later by basis.
Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton. The '/.C.A. Prints' project was There is a greater demand now for trichromatic halftones, the
mooted, schedul€d to involve twenty-four artists. Four prints were pro­ reproduction of actual colour photographs, from artists such as
duced currently with Kelpra's commercial work and the strain of Kitaj. Tilson and Paolozzi. We have developed the posterization and
increased production, together with Prater's growing disinclination for polarization of images. Posterization is the process by which one
commercial work, led him to a decision to take up teaching work and breaks a photograph down into tonal separations for different colour
print as a hobby. He was, in fact, kept fully occupied by the /.C.A. prints or tone printing. Polarization is where one breaks a photograph down
and other work by the artists involved. Kelpra Studio built up as f}ne art into line and tone without the use of a halftone.
printers from there. When Marlborough Fine Art and Editions Alecto Now some artists are moving out into the mJltiple, using vacuum­
increased their publishing the demand became so great that Kelpra formed images, etc. Not only the young artists are doing this. I think
was forced to expand to cope with the business. In October 1966 the screenprinting will continue to develop as the demand arises. It
firm moved into its present premises. Apart from Chris Prater and his is much more flexible than other printing media and it is our
wife, who deals with the business side, the key men are the Works intention to develop our experiments as the artists come to demand
Manager Christopher Betambeau, seven years with Kelpra and at 22 a more and more from us. At one time six printings was the average,
director of the firm, and the cameraman, Dennis Francis. Since now twelve, fourteen, fifteen printings are nothing out of the ordi­
November 1966 there has been a complete turnover of the rest of the nary, which of course means that costs are increasing. It now costs
staff as the result of Prater's search for technicians of real quality. His twice as much to produce a set of prints as it did two years ago, not
aim Is to train and build a unit which can function without his super­ so much because of rising costs as because of the increased de­
vision if necessary, as a place for artists to work and continue to mands of the artist in terms of techniques, size, and multi-colour
produce prints. working.
I cannot see editions getting much larger in the immediate future.
The techniques used at Kelpra Studio are normal commercial tech­ It would be courageous of any publisher to produce an edition of
niques. The screen printing medium is brutal as compared to 5,000 in fine art print; the sales problem is one of education. The
lithography where one can get subtle effects of graduation of tone. popularity of the poster derives from the fact that it is designed to a
One is governed by the fineness of the nylon mesh through which market, whereas the print is the artist's original expression. Until the
one prints. We do, however, carry the techniques further than com­ public are educated and saturated with modern art, well ... I still
mercial printers can; more money is avallable for experiments, and think it's a fine idea, but nothing more.
the technicians are more skilled at their jobs. The normal commer­ For the future, I think things are working towards a state in which
cial job would use an average of four or five colours at most; we the artist will be seen as a man of ideas, and the printmaker or
might use twelve to sixteen on one print with many varied stencils carpenter or metalworker as the man who executes them. To use
and inks involved. one artist's analogy, he sees himself as the composer, me as the
Each artist requires a different approach; each has to be treated conductor, and Kelpra Studio as the orchestra.
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