The history of lithographs
Like all prints, lithographs gave birth to a new printing technique. During the first industrial revolution in the 18th century, due to the need for large-scale and simple printing, an epoch-making accident led to the invention of lithography. The original intention of developing lithography was to find a cheap way to print words and pictures. The rapid prosperity of industry and commerce, and the subsequent rise of the emerging bourgeoisie and citizen classes who were open-minded, advocating life, and arty, brought about copying. There is a surge in demand for famous paintings and reproduction prints reflecting secular life. The market for replicating prints made lithography gradually develop and mature as a printing technology, and at the same time, a new variety of prints was produced - the art of lithography.
At the beginning of the 19th century, passionate and creative painters centered in France were not satisfied with the replicative production process of lithographs, and began to intervene in the entire production process of lithographs to express the original spirit of the painters through direct painting. From then on, the art of lithography with real creative significance was born and developed
The rise and fall of lithography has fluctuated with the needs of the market. Since Romanticism, the major painting schools and the modern paintings of the 20th century The masters of the school actively devoted themselves to the creation of lithographs, and guided the development of lithographs with their respective forms of expression and aesthetic concepts.
Picasso’s restless nature injected his inspiration into every aspect of lithograph plate making and printing, turning the technical process of lithograph plate making and printing into a means of artistic re-creation, proposing a new modern Concepts of lithograph making.
China has also gone through a historical stage from the introduction of lithography to the initial formation of lithographs. However, the development of lithographs was subject to certain political and educational needs and was not driven by market forces. Therefore, It has become an art that a few people have struggled to explore, and at the same time it has left a large untapped artistic space.
The learning purposes of this part of the course are: to understand the history of lithographs, to understand the technical and artistic characteristics of lithographs by looking back at the development of lithographs; to learn from the past and the future, and to understand the development and evolution of lithographs Think in connection with current art practices and understand the principles of lithograph creation.
1. The invention of lithography and the development of lithography art
1.1 Senefield and lithography
In the late 18th century, with the British spinning When the machine started, the roar of the machine echoed throughout Western Europe. Although Germany was divided at the time, the waves of the Industrial Revolution were already beginning to hit both sides of the Rhine.
At this time, in Bavaria, a young Czech-born Aloys senefelder (1771-1834), who was born in Prague, was studying law at the university while inheriting his late father’s traveling and performance career and starting a business. The leader of the troupe. He began writing scores and plays in 1792, but no publisher was willing to adopt the unknown writer's scripts. He wanted to introduce script printing, but woodblock and copperplate printing required certain expertise.
A dense and fine light-colored limestone slab is a specialty of Bavaria's Sonndorfen quarry. It is widely used as building materials and paving. Selfield decided to give it a try and use it to carve printing plate. One day in 1796, he wrote the order form for his mother's laundry room on these slates with crayons to prevent him from forgetting. When he used nitric acid solution to clean the slate, the writing appeared in relief. Then I applied ink and tried printing on paper. I found that the handwriting reappeared in the dirt. There is another theory about this accidental discovery, which is that a piece of wet clothes was placed on the slates where the oil crayon had been written, and then ink was applied. Only the writing part absorbed the ink, and the rest did not absorb the ink due to the presence of water.
After hearing the news, Gula Esner, the music director of the Bavarian Royal Theater, bought a copper plate printing press for Senefeld with the intention of printing simple music scores. Once the test is successful, the patent for the King of Bavaria's aid rights will be obtained. But on the copper plate press, the stone cracked and the printing effect was not ideal. After further research, Senefeld discovered the water-absorbing and oil-repellent properties of gum arabic.
After drawing on the stone surface with a greasy crayon, it is then covered with gum arabic liquid mixed with nitric acid. After cleaning, it is moistened with water and rolled on with ink for printing. Since oil and water are mutually exclusive, the ink only adheres to the crayon part and is printed on the paper. From 1797 to 1798, this primitive "lithography" printed document scores and pictures. This was an epoch-making invention in the history of printing and printmaking. Today, offset printing still uses its basic process principles. This printing method was named Lithograph after the Greek word for depicting this on stone.
In 1799, the Bavarian government granted Senefeld a patent for lithography, prohibiting competitors for 15 years. But Senefield never kept his secrets, and he was happy to introduce anyone who came.
In 1800, Senefeld founded the first lithography workshop in Offenbach, Germany. Publisher Anjohn Andolai bought the patent for 200 guilders and ran the workshop. Senefield presided over the training of 2 people. Andolai and his cousin Fran?ois Giannet were the first to use lithographs to print paintings.
Senefeld produced wooden and iron lithographs in 1805 and 1817. While he was drawing on the stone surface, he also discovered a method of drawing on paper with ink and crayon and then transferring it to a stone tablet. Transfer paper, transfer ink and plate-making ink were produced. Using this transfer plate-making method, copper engravings and wood engravings can be transferred to stone tablets. In 1817, Senefeld successfully experimented by grinding the surface of zinc and tin plates into grits to replace slate plates. The application of transcription and metal became the basis for further development into offset printing.
In 1801, a brother named Philp, who lived in Andolai's home in London, applied for a patent from the British government without telling Senefield. Three years later, he published a book. The original collection of paintings, "Sample Collection of Lithography", included 12 paintings by 12 painters, and lithography settled in England. In Paris, another brother of Andolai obtained a French government patent in 1802 and established a lithograph printing workshop.
Bavaria gained independence in 1804. Due to the recommendation of Baron Aledaine, in 1808 Senefeld made a color lithographic copy of Dürer's "Maximilian Prayer Book" stored in the Royal Library and published it. As a result of this glorious monumental publication, the Bavarian royal family purchased Senefeld's factory and appointed him superintendent of the royal printing office. In 1810, his younger brother Stolohova published "The Secret of Lithography". The president of the Royal Academy believed that a comprehensive book on lithography techniques should be written by Senefeld himself, so Senefeld published it in 1818. The Complete Book of Lithography, which included reviews and explanations, was published in English and French translations the following year.
On February 26, 1834, Senefeld died in Munich. When he closed his eyes, he had seen lithographic experts and lithographic printing workshops in London, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, ??New York and other places becoming surprisingly active. Lithography even landed in China, the hometown of printing.
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