WHO DOES WHAT AND WHAT CONSTITUTES AN ORIGINAL PRINT?

In the Frequently Asked Questions section of any printmaking website or publication, people always ask: "where is the original?" Even galleries, who should know better, sometimes say, in reference to enquiries about their holdings of prints, "we only stock originals!" This matter is dear to hearts of all artists who work in the mediums which come under the banner of Printmaking and, indeed, is one upon which I often pronounce on my soapbox.

Five hundred years ago, Rembrandt made the most exquisite drawings on copper plate, etched them in acid and made impressions of these on paper by inking up the intaglio (etched) lines and running his copper plate between the rollers of a simple press. These highly sought-after works are still regarded as original masterpieces. Rembrandt drew the lines and he and his printer made the prints in his studio. The prints are often based on subjects similar to those in his paintings, but none is a photographic reproduction of an image that exists in another medium. Each plate was drawn painstakingly by hand.

The word "print" has come to mean too many other things in more recent times, so when one describes oneself is a printmaker, the average man in the pub will assume you produce Batman posters and advertising for hoardings. At Basil Hall Editions, we are trying very hard to lose the word "print" in favour of the various media we use; etching, screen printing and so on.

There are most certainly reproduction prints around; many of them to be found in the very same gallery "print"racks as the original hand-drawn, hand-printed originals. It is unfortunate that so many artists, including many of our great masters in the twentieth century, have allowed reproductions - or copies - of their paintings to be commercially printed in limited editions, as though that makes them special (and they are made in just the same way that pages of a cheap magazine are offset printed). They then solemnly sign these in pencil like editions of original prints. Expensive autographs!

When you are buying prints, it is important to know who did what. No-one is decrying modern technology, and computer-generated images are now being incorporated into modern etchings, silkscreens and the like. If these are made/generated etc by the artist, they are still regarded as the original work of that artist.

If you are interested in buying the original work of an artist - the one whose signature appears in pencil at the bottom left-hand corner - you'd like to know that that person actually worked on the etching plate that made the etching or the stone that the lithograph was printed from, wouldn't you?

There are some wonderful master printers in Australia. In past years the work of the printer was often revered (and acknowledged on the print border). These days, sadly for printers perhaps, the investor and art lover is usually looking for a "name" artist, rather than the work of a particular printer to spend his or her hard-earned money on. If the print has been beautifully hand-made by a printer (photographically or otherwise) and not the artist, surely it is then the work of that printer/technician after an image supplied by the artist. In earlier centuries, that is what it would have said - in latin - under the engraving. And that is what it should say now in the documentation accompanying this sort of work.

Original etchings, silkscreen prints, relief prints and lithographs are just as magical to behold as one-off paintings, drawings and sculpture, especially if one knows that the artist has actually made them and handled them. There is an aura about original work. Reproductions of famous paintings are fine to live with (how many copies of Drysdale's The Cricketers are to be found hanging in surgeries and offices all over Australia?), but there's no aura. What you see is a photographic copy of something made in another medium. Often, for much the same money, you can acquire the real thing. Please do.

BUYING AN AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS PRINT

Prints from Art Centres in Indigenous communities usually come with full documentation about the artist who made the image on the plate, block, stone or acetate. Although these sheets don't always acknowledge the printer or the studio which conducted the workshop at which the matrix was drawn, that information is easy to ascertain. The Australian Art Print Network, Australian Print Workshop, Northern Editions and Basil Hall Editions can all supply editioning records which state who did what.

COLLABORATOR: this is the printer who conducted the workshop or who worked side by side with the artist to assist him as he/she drew/painted the image.

PRINTER: In the studio, once the collaborator has returned from the remote community where the work was made, the plate is proofed and an impression taken by the printer. The collaborator may have to add tone (called aquatint) to areas the artist has outlined in acid-resistant paint, and the plate may even need to be returned to the artist for further work, but once a good proof is taken it is photographed and a jpeg sent to the community for approval or advice. A proof may also be mailed to the artist for closer inspection. Once the print has the artistís approval, the printer has the task of hand-printing the whole edition using one copy as his/her guide.

Sometimes the collaborator is also the printer of the edition.

At Basil Hall Editions NO reproductions of existing paintings, carvings or drawings are ever made.

If an artist wants to make an image that already exists in another medium as an etching (and many, many, images are based on traditional stories passed down by the artist's family), that image must be hand-painted or drawn onto the matrix by the artist. Collaborators and printers are certainly almost always involved in technical tasks in the making of Indigenous prints in remote communities, such as applying the aquatint to areas of the plate that the artist has blocked in, or printing, but the artist's is the only hand that makes the image.

For an etching, the artist can work in the positive with a paint brush and sugar lift directly onto the etching plate. He or she could also make a fine line drawing through a thin ground/coating on the plate. It's up to the collaborator to guide an artist into an appropriate way of working once he's seen examples of that artist's work. This is often a difficult task, for language reasons, but experienced artists seem to excel once they have seen the process.

Screenprints are very direct too, as the masters can be painted in acrylic paint onto sheets of mylar (clear plastic), one colour to a sheet, and the resultant sheets can be exposed onto emulsion-coated screens and washed out to form stencils for printing.

Good carvers in some communities have been encouraged to carve lino blocks or wood blocks, and shown how impressions can be made from their carvings by rolling ink across the top surface of the blocks and transferring the image to paper. Many communities know how to print their own, but most still choose to concentrate on the art making and leave the printing to the city-based studios.

To sum up, the Indigenous printmaking movement in Australia is comparatively young, but growing fast in the major cities and on numerous communities across the length and breadth of the country. Printmaking workshops have been run each year by specialist printers such as Basil Hall (BHE), Leon Stainer (CDU), Monique Auricchio (BHE), Martin King (APW), Dian Dharmansjar (NE), Trent Walter (NE) and Andrew Sinclair (for Injalak Arts), leading to literally hundreds of extraordinary new prints by Indigenous artists entering the market.

Basil Hall