Featuring prints from the decade 1962-1972, the exhibition concentrates on what was something of a boom period in British printmaking. This was in large part due to the rise in the status of screen printing as a fine art medium. With its facility for printing large areas of solid colour, combined with the recent advances made in the development of photo-printmaking techniques, screen printing lent itself to a wide range of imagery and was eagerly taken up by both established and emerging artists of the time. The exhibition title pays homage to Eduardo Paolozzi's suite of 12 screen prints, As is When, published in 1965, which has been referred to as ' the first masterpiece of the medium.'

In addition to screen prints, the exhibition includes etchings and lithographs and features a number of innovatory prints which explored the use of new materials. Included are three of the first editioned screen prints on Perspex from the Fragments series of 1965 by Bridget Riley, three screen prints on Acetate from Joe Tilson's Clip-O-Matic series of 1967-69, and three of Richard Hamilton's vacuum formed Guggenheim relief multiples from 1970.

A fully illustrated catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition. Including colour reproductions of all the prints in the exhibition, an essay by the exhibition curator Richard Riley, biographical details of the artists and a chronology of the period. ISBN 0863555179 Available from Cornerhouse www.cornerhouse.org. A bi-lingual (English/Mandarin edition, with forewords by Kun-liang Chiu, Minister of Cultural Affairs, Pao-shia Huesh, Director of the National Museum of Fine Art and J J Shih, Director of the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, was published by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN 13: 978-986-00-6119-2; 10: 986-006119-X

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Acetate

    Clear plastic film / sheet available in different weights and thickness, that can be printed upon or have tape laid upon it; water resistant.

  • Curator

    A person who creates exhibitions or who is employed to look after and research museum objects.

  • Edition

    All copies of a book, print, portfolio, sculpture, etc., issued or produced at one time or from a single set of type. Printed works can be made in an edition of between one and many thousands of copies. With most printing techniques the plate or screen will become worn if very many prints are made, so to maintain quality (and exclusivity) editions of original prints are usually kept below one hundred copies and normally average between thirty and fifty copies. Prints made up of several different plates can be extremely complicated and time-consuming to edition, so in these cases editions are kept low for practical reasons. Sculptural editions are a set of cast sculptures taken from the same mould or master. These editions are usually much lower, consisting of no more than six casts. Though each cast in an edition might have a lower value than a unique piece, it may be a more effective way of offsetting costs of an expensive process such as bronze casting.

  • Medium

    Refers to either the material used to create a work of art, craft or design, i.e. oil, bronze, earthenware, silk; or the technique employed i.e. collage, etching, carving. In painting the medium refers to the binder for the pigment, e.g. oil, egg, acrylic dispersion. The plural form is media.