February 2020
Silkscreen printing (also referred to as screen printing and serigraphy) is a modern printmaking mode with a very old history. Its origins can be traced to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in China and it appeared in Europe in the 18th century. It became a more popular medium with the introduction of silk mesh in the 19th century and the first English patent for the technique was issued to Samuel Simon in 1907. Although initially used for wallpaper and fabric patterns, silkscreen was soon understood to be a reliable medium for easily reproducing works of fine art and by the 1930s artists who used the technique began to call it “serigraphy” to distinguish their work from more commercial applications. Silkscreen perhaps reached its widest audience when the technique emerged as a key mode of Pop art (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, et. al.) in the late 1950s and 1960s.
The purpose of this exhibition is to introduce the Zea Mays community to the medium and to the silkscreen facilities that are housed a few meters from the Sanford Gallery. The works on display here come from the Zea Mays print archive and from ZMP members, past and present, who have practiced the medium here in the studio. Included in the exhibition: Jennifer Gover, Yasmina Karli Malmsten, Andrew Moon Bain, Dan Filler, Hannah Richards, Jane Thurber, Kathleen Donkin, Lynn Peterfreund, Rachel Chapman, Nancy Sachs, Rich Turnbull, Aaron Piziali, Pablo Romero, Liz Chalfin, Esther S. White.
Rich Turnbull
ZMP Exhibition Committee
