Society of American Graphic Artists

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As time goes on, the distinctions between photographs, computer prints, and traditional prints made by hand grow fuzzier. Artists are using computer images and photographic techniques in a variety of ways in creating traditional prints. In the past, SAGA accepted these prints as long as the final images were printed by hand. Prints we create as SAGA members have always required the artistic skils of both the makers of the matrix and the master printer. Now that it is possible for intaglio, lithography, serigraphy, and even relief printing to utilize photographic and computerized images, how do we define an "original prints"?

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Date of Publication: June 1, 2003. This article has not been published previously. All rights of copyright are retained by Richard Sloat. Reproduction or publication is forbidden without the written consent of the author.

Woodcuts, etchings have a long historical background—see Dürer, Rembrandt… I am a woodcut artist. Hyatt Major designed and made the department of prints of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He made an exhibition of 500 years of color printing, the last case had Domjam color woodcuts. Coltra Yves widened the door to include drawings, prints, and photographs. Exhibits are not mixed; drawings and photographs are shown separately. So must computer prints be exhibited, judged, and awarded separately. They can be understood and appreciated only by experts in the field. Experts of traditional graphic arts may not be familiar with computers. Imp. The artist had the idea, did the work, originated the first sketch, cut the woodblock, printed the final work of art. In the nineteenth century, posters were never exhibited next to paintings on the same wall even if they were made by famous artists.

The golden age of Japanese prints—the theatre district, geisha girls, street markets where prints were displayed, handled, sold right from the printing table. At our exhibits, prints must be matted, framed under glass—much of the beauty lost. I love a heavy, handmade oriental paper. Etchings are three dimensional; so are woodcuts; they must be touched, the fingers allowed to touch the paper. The paper itself is a crucial part of the art, part of the quality. Sharaku, Utamaro, Hokusai their influence on modern art… Chi-Pai-shi makes a pen drawing on paper; expert team of cutters, printers finish the work…the brush, he knife, the tools, the paper, the colors…all this makes the art work.
--Evelyn Domjan. (Date of Publication: SAGAzine winter, 2004).

Point of View from Roy Drasites
Is it process, or intention?

The question of what constitutes an original print is not about process but rather the intention of the person making the print. For example, if someone makes a watercolor, acrylic, or oil painting, the intention is to make a painting. If he or she later copies the painting (photographically or digitally) and produces an offset lithograph or digital print, then the intention is to make a reproduction. All prints made with this intention are reproductions rather than original prints.

Not all artists who use a computer to generate images have this intention. Some use the computer to generate original prints in the same way an etcher uses a metal plate.

Mr. Sloat stated , “The SAGA council in this debate was bothered by the hands off aspect of the computer print, especially in the pulling of the print.” Members of a drawing or painting society would be amused (to say the least) at


what we deem “by hand.” In addition to the machines we use, we approve of plates being processed and being pulled by people other than the artist at studios such as Gemini and Tamarind.

I have been a SAGA member for 35 years. For the first 15 of those, I made etchings and lithographs. Not being “The Hulk” and strong enough to apply 2000 PSI of pressure to transfer the ink from plate to paper, I had to use a printing press—a machine. During the last 20 years, I’ve made my prints with another machine—a computer.

If SAGA members fear a computer, they shouldn’t. The computer doesn’t make art. It just sits there as a stupid machine waiting for us to do something. It is no different from the litho crayon lying on the worktable. The crayon won’t magically get up and draw an image; we have to do that. I use an electronic tablet and make masks in the same way that I painted asphaltum on copper plates when making etchings—same approach/different tool. If machines are okay for etchings and lithos, why is the computer (another machine) considered taboo for making an original print?

The critic Barbara Rose said it best: “When you look at art, you ask ‘Why was it done?’ When you look at craft, you ask ‘How was it done?’” The SAGA Council and/or the SAGA members are debating the merits of how something is done, with or without computers, with or without photographic processes, hands on or hands off. That how is a debate about craft. Artists are creative, inventive, and clever people. They will make their art with whatever means they find appropriate.

It is my hope that SAGA will retain its noble mission of promoting the making of art through printmaking and not be mired in debate about craft. Leave that to the craft societies. We are, of course, the Society of American Graphic Artists. ---Roy Drasites. (Date of Publication: SAGAzine winter, 2004)

Point of View from Dennis Revitzky
Drawing A Distinction...

The article by Richard Sloat appearing in the last SAGA newsletter nicely stated a provocative point in contemporary printmaking, one which I think many of us have thought about. Perhaps it’s time to draw a better distinction between the traditional made “by hand” prints and those made by using the newer technologies. Although the intent and concept may be similar for artists working in either of these methods of printmaking, the process and product are usually very different. Terms such as “traditional print” and perhaps “technographic print” could be applied to make the distinction—a distinction that could be used for museum and gallery exhibitions as well as juried shows.
--Dennis Revitzky. (Date of Publication: SAGAzine winter, 2004)