Contemporary Printmaking

With its emergence in the late 14th century, Western printmaking is a young medium—especially compared to painting, whose origins reach back roughly forty thousand years. And yet, the printed image often carries a sense of the historical: one tends to think of old masters like Dürer, Rembrandt, or Goya rather than contemporary artists.

Printmaking, however, is very much alive today. Like any other artistic medium, it has its own rules and possibilities of expression, which artists continuously explore, expand, and reinterpret.

This publication aims to offer insight into the work of such contemporaries, to introduce various practitioners, and to highlight the diversity of a medium too often associated only with the art of past centuries.

Mia Butter focuses on the monumental prints of Lisa Faustmann: her large-scale works demonstrate how historical rolemodels can be combined with innovative approaches.

Leon Friederichs shows how even the avant-garde practices of Jonas Liesaus are anchored in the history of printmaking. The artist stretches the definition of a (printmaking) work to the utmost, blurring the distinction between result and tool. As a logical extension, the “Artist Pages” printed here make his practice of combining and recycling directly tangible.

Emmanuelle Passelande shows how, in Christoph Tschernatsch’s series Goya for Everyone, aquatint becomes a language of critique of the present.

Jonas Sanden lays out how Katja Wolf’s work moves between print and sculpture, allowing the surface itself to become the motif.

Sezen Deniz Tokadam traces how, in Donna Volta Newmen’s work, historical references, myths, and materials are fused into works full of resilience.

In the conversation between Maria & Vlado Ondrej and Jonas Sanden talk about “graphic thinking,” the importance of collaboration, and the enduring fascination of the imprint.

Darius Schulpig looks at the early woodcuts of EL Loko, which form the foundation of his artistic œuvre, examining their linkage of African and European image systems and the artist’s lifelong navigation between German and Togolese culture.

We hope that the insights and impulses gathered here contribute to a greater appreciation of the medium as a whole. If there is one thing we have learned, it is that printmaking requires time and calm—both in its making and in its contemplation. This issue invites you to take that time.

Exclusive print edition:

To celebrate the magazine launch we asked Donna Volta Newmen, Jonas Liesaus and Christoph Tschernatsch to collaborate on a print edition.

The resulting two motifs are each handprinted in an edition of 10.

Through the various steps in the creation of a printmaking work, the medium is specifically prone to artistic collaboration. Technical skills can be passed on, artists can work on the same plate or layer their motifs. The edition want’s to highlight this.