Page 59 - Studio International - June 1971

Supplement June 1971 have printed hundreds of impressions which
he took to fairs and other public assembly areas
Lithographs and original prints for sales distribution. He also undoubtedly sold
or gave impressions to close associates, fellow
artists, artisans, members of the clergy, and so
The end of masterpieces of German art, was placed under
forth. As this extraordinary plate, one of the
`the cult of the the repeated punishment of the press cycle, the
unique' soft copper surface around the meticulous
grooves engraved by Dürer wore down and this
Donald H. Karshan deterioration, probably after only one hundred
impressions or so, already affected, although
The reproducible art object, from Diirer's very subtly, the amazing clarity and brilliance
imprinted engravings to Duchamp's fabricated of the detailed image. After Dürer's death, this
multiples, has passed through half a millennium copper plate was far from retired. Most likely
of art history. At this end of the twentieth thousands of additional impressions were made
century a broad philosophical overview is by printers who wished to capitalize on the
necessary to place this activity, which has famed work by Dürer. Needless to say, these
produced millions of 'art' images, in perspective later printings grew increasingly faint and the
relative to the needs and capacities of our time. original vision of the artist paled to near
The only art objects that have been fully extinction with these posthumous impressions.
reproducible as original works of art, i.e. —each There had been no fixed, limited edition
work from the 'source' image is deemed an conceived for Knight, Death and Devil. Nor was
original work of art—are prints and sculpture. there for any other artist's print prior to the
This multiple art object is solely an art image, nineteenth century when two new considerations
as distinct from the objet d'art, which, often were introduced, one economic, the other
produced in multiple, only at best incorporates technical. Publisher-dealers decided that by
an art image. The engraved or etched line, setting a small edition for the number of
furrowed into the iron or copper plate, is impressions, having each individual impression
analogous to the sculptural mould. In both numbered as an indication of the size of this
media, the material of the resultant art object— edition and the place the impression had in it,
paper pushed by the pressure of the press, or and having the artist execute his signature in
poured, molten metal—fills the negative image. pencil, that the print could be sold at a much
With the silkscreen apparatus or the higher price. They were right. The over-riding
photographic negative, the transmission of ink factor of forced rarity and the personalization by
or light through a negative image produces the direct signature introduced a whole new type of
counter image in positive form. In the woodcut precious art object into the art market. Although
and lithograph, an inked positive image yields a the mercantile motive was dominant, an
congruent positive image. In all of these aesthetic, constructive by-product of this new
processes, if the source image does not change practice also resulted. The limitation on the
due to deterioration of the material which number of impressions usually ruled out the sort
contains the image and the printing or casting, of deterioration that resulted from the over-use
with its subsequent finishing, is uniform, the of the source images over the centuries (as in
final multiple art objects will be identical or at the example of the D firer engraving). And in the
least sufficiently near-identical that the artist case of lithography, particularly with delicate
can accept them, the limited or unlimited lithographic washes and other uses of thinned-
`edition', as fully reflecting his original artistic out ink or tusche, it was almost a necessity, if
intentions, or are deemed by him as 'original'. one was to retain faithfulness to the original
The progeny are matched! image, to limit the number of impressions to
From the beginning of printmaking, in the about one hundred or even as few as thirty
fifteenth century, until about the middle of the impressions. Equally as stringent a circumstance
nineteenth century, the number of images, or surrounds drypoint, where the burr and its
impressions produced from these sources — velvety effect on the line are so short-lived that
blocks, plates or stones —was governed by three usually after thirty to fifty impressions, the
factors and three factors alone. First was the effects are already significantly diminished as
number of impressions the artist, printer or are much of the aesthetics of the original image.
publisher wished to print. This decision was With multiple sculpture, that is, with cast
usually based simply on demand. The second sculpture, the number of works that a mould can
determinant was how long the graven image on yield is large, and even after the mould
the plate, block or stone could hold out under deteriorates, new ones can be made from the
many successive printings and still yield original 'model' or plaster, whether a sand cast
reasonably clear printed images. And third or lost wax process cast is desired. Analogously,
were the vagaries of accident or destruction, then, the practice of the limited edition in
which eliminated the source material entirely. modern sculpture, also beginning in the
Thus, using the example of Albrecht Dürer's nineteenth century with the emergence of
engraving, Knight, Death and Devil, cut by the widespread art collecting, was a method of
German master in 1513, the artist himself must forced rarity, but without even the justifications

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