Platemark Ann Shafer

Enlightenment publications on human anatomy changed the way artists understood their place in the world. Check out these examples of life-changing images brought to you by prints in books!
 
In s2e31 of Platemark’s History of Prints series, Tru and Ann continue their discussion of the Enlightenment. This time they look at several publications that put forward new discoveries about human anatomy: William Hunter’s The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, Bernhard Siegfried Albinus’ Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani, and Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty’s Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. They conclude with Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, a 17-volume tome that attempted to define and codify all of human knowledge.
 
At the end of the episode, Ann and Tru wax philosophical about how incredible this blossoming of human knowledge is, and how talking about it makes each of them think about our place as humans on the planet. It gets a bit deep, but worthwhile.

A. Hadamart. Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre, 1699. Engraving.

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780). Vue du Louvre en l’année 1753, 1753. Etching. Plate: 5 13/16 x 7 1/8 in. (14.8 x 18.1 cm.); sheet: 6 ¼ x 7 5/8 in. (15.8 x 19.3 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). View of the Salon of 1785, 1785. Etching. Plate: 10 7/8 x 19 1/8 in. (27.6 x 48.6 cm.); sheet: 14 1/4 x 20 3/4 in. (36.2 x 52.7 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). View of the Salon of 1787, 1787. Etching. Plate: 12 11/16 x 19 5/16 in. (32.2 x 49.1 cm.); sheet: 14 x 19 3/4 in. (35.6 x 50.2 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797), after Johann Heinrich Ramberg (German, 1763–1840). The Exhibition of the Royal Academy 1787, 1787. Engraving. Plate: 36.1 x 49.9 cm. British Museum, London.

Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). The Oath of the Horatii, 1784/85. Oil on canvas. 10.8 x 13.9 ft. Louvre Museum, Paris.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792). Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to Graces, 1765. Oil on canvas. 242.6 × 151.5 cm. (95 1/2 × 59 3/4 in.). Art Institute of Chicago.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792). Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar, 1787. Oil on canvas. 142 x 113.5 cm. National Gallery, London.

Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797). Salon de 1787: view of the Salon Carre at the Louvre during the painting exhibition in Paris, 1852. Engraving. From Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly.

Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828). Voltaire Seated, 1781. Terra-cotta. 120 cm. tall. Musée Fabre, Montpellier.

Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806). Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette (The Swing), c. 1767–68. Oil on canvas. 81 x 64.2 cm. The Wallace Collection, London.

Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828). Benjamin Franklin, 1778. Marble. 23 1/8 × 14 1/2 × 11 1/4 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Rembrandt (Dutch, 1606–1669). The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas. 216.5 × 169 ½ cm. (85 1/4 × 66 5/8 in.). Mauritshuis, The Hague.

William Hunter (British, 1718–1783). Title page from The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774.

Jan van Rymsdyk (Dutch, c. 1730–1790). Plate VI from The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. London: S. Baker & G. Leigh, 1774. Engraving.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519). Sketchbook page: the fetus in the womb, c. 1511. Black and red chalk, pen and brush and ink. The Royal Collection.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519). Sketchbook page: the female genetalia and fetus in the womb, c. 1511. Black and red chalk, pen and brush and ink. The Royal Collection.

Johann Zoffany (German, 17

In Platemark’s History of Prints series, we are leaving the Baroque behind and are turning to the Enlightenment. The late seventeenth and eighteenth century is a fascinating time when social ideas focused on the value of knowledge in all sectors. Rationalism and empiricism led to the scientific revolution, the separation of church and state, literary salons, and for the purposes of this episode, art academies. The era saw the establishment of taxonomies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and studies of foreign cultures. The results of all of these studies led to both good and bad, leading Tru and I to discuss alternate terms for the era beyond the Enlightenment: the Endarkenment and the Enwhitenment. Listen in as we parse out this fascinating moment in history.
 
You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com.
 

George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Hyacinth Rigaud (French, 1659–1743). Louis VIX, 1700–01. Oil on canvas. 277 x 194 cm. (109 x 76 3/8 in.) The Louvre, Paris.

Aerial view of Versailles.

Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665). Et in Arcadia ego, 1637–38. Oil on canvas. 85 × 121 cm. (34 1/4 × 47 1/4 in.). Louvre, Paris.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680). Bust of Louis XIV, 1665. Marble. Palace of Versailles.

Façade of the Louvre Museum.

Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665). Landscape with St. John Patmos, 1640. Oil on canvas. 100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.). Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

Johann Zoffany (German, 1733–1810). The Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771–72. Oil on canvas. 101.1 x 147.5 cm. Royal Collection Trust.

Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). School of Athens, 1509–11. Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican.

Roman. Laocoön and His Sons, 27 BCE–68 CE. Marble. 208 × 163 × 112 cm. (82 × 64 × 44 in.). Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican City.  

Wax ecorché figure. Science Museum, London.

Johann Zoffany (German, 1733–1810). William Hunter Lecturing, 1770–72. Oil on canvas. Royal College of Physicians, London.

Anton von Maron (German, 1733–1808). Portrait of Johann Joachim Winkelmann, 1767. Oil on canvas. 136 x 99 cm. (53 ½ x 38 7/8 in.). Collection of Schloss Weimar, Weimar, Germany.

Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). The Oath of the Horatii, 1784/85. Oil on canvas. 10.8 x 13.9 ft. Louvre Museum, Paris.

Jan van Riemsdyck, Plate VI from The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. London: S. Baker & G. Leigh, 1774. Engraving.

Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828). Plate 43 from Los Caprichos: The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la razon produce monstruos), 1799. Etching and aquatint. Plate: 8 3/8 x 5 15/16 in. (21.2 x 15.1 cm.); sheet: 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (29.5 x 21 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Denis Diderot (French, 1713–1784). Title page and frontispiece from Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris : André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durant, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751–72.

African-American artist Dox Thrash is in the spotlight on s3e60 of Platemark. Podcast host Ann Shafer speaks with Ron Rumford, director of Dolan/Maxwell, a private gallery in Philadelphia, which has a particular specialty in the prints of Stanley William Hayter and the associated artists of Atelier 17, as well as Black artists of the same era, such as Dox Thrash, Bob Blackburn, Norma Morgan, Elizabeth Catlett, Ed Clark, and more. Ron was eager to highlight an exhibition focused on Dox Thrash, which is on view at the African American Museum of Philadelphia through August 4, 2024.
 
They talk about Thrash and his invention of the carborundum mezzotint, Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop and its relationship to Atelier 17 and Hayter, the monumental importance of the WPA printmaking division, and Ballinglen, an artist residency and gallery founded by Peter Maxwell and Margo Dolan in Ballycastle, a tiny farming town in County Mayo, Ireland.
 

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Sunday Morning, c. 1939. Etching. Sheet: 12 5/8 x 10 5/8 in.; plate: 8 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

L-R: Krishna Reddy, Stanley William Hayter, Robert Blackburn, and friend, 1980s, at Reddy’s studio.

Hayter at the press with lithography press behind him, Atelier 17 in New York.

Photo of Pennerton West with fellow artists including Augusta Savage and Norman Lewis.

Pennerton West (American, 1913–1965). Troll in the Grain, 1952. State proof; color etching and lithography. Image: 14 ¾ x 17 ¾ in. Dolan/Maxwell Gallery, Philadelphia.

Pennerton West (American, 1913–1965). Troll in the Grain, 1952. State proof; color etching and lithography. Image: 14 ¾ x 17 ¾ in. Dolan/Maxwell Gallery, Philadelphia.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Georgia Cotton Crop, c. 1944–45. Carborundum mezzotint. Plate: 8 7/16 x 9 7/8 in.; sheet: 11 ¼ x 11 3/4. in. Dolan/Maxwell Gallery, Philadelphia.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Ebony Joe, c. 1939. Lithograph. Sheet: 10 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Octoroon (Study for a Lithograph), c. 1939. Brush and ink wash over graphite. Sheet: 16 7/8 x 12 ¼ in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Octoroon, c. 1939. Lithograph. Sheet: 22 13/16 x 11 9/16 in. Collection of John Warren, Philadelphia.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). Charlot, c. 1938–39. Carborundum mezzotint. Plate: 8 15/16 x 6 15/16 in. Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia.

Michael Gallagher (American, 1895–1965). Lackawanna Valley, 1938. Carborundum mezzotint. Plate: 7 3/8 x 12 11/16 in.; sheet: 9 3/8 x 14 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.  

Hugh Mesibov (American, 1916–2016). Homeless, 1938. Carborundum mezzotint. Plate: 5 3/8 x 10 3/8 in. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965). One Horse Farmer, c. 1944–48. Carborundum mezzotint. 9 x 6 in. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

John Ruskin (British, 1819–1900). The Garden of San Miniato near Florence, 1845. Watercolor and pen and black ink, heightened with whie gouache, over graphite. Sheet: 13 7/16 x 19 3/8 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Stanley William Hayter (English, 1901–1988). Cinq personnages, 1946. Engraving, softground etching, and scorper; printed in black (intaglio). Sheet: 495 x 647 mm. (19 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.); plate: 376 x 605 mm. (14 13/16 x 23 13/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Stanley William Hayter (English, 1901–1988). Cinq personnages, 1946. Engraving, softground etching, and scorper; printed in black (intaglio), and green (screen, relief). Sheet: 460 x 660 mm. (18 1/8 x 26 in.); plate: 376 x 605 mm. (14 13/16 x 23 13/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Stanley William Hayter (English, 1901–1988). Cinq personnages, 1946. Engraving and softground etching; printed i

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer sits down with David Avery to talk shop. David is an etcher, who restrains his work in both size and palette, but manages to tackle big topics. His social commentary is stinging and remarkable in that it comes in such a small package. These etchings pack a punch.
Ann and David talk about absurdist literature, standing on the shoulders of giants (Dürer, Max Klinger, Della Bella), how prescient Goltzius’s Disgracers are, and how we could never have imagined the state of our politics—reality is outstripping our imaginations.  
Cover image: Patricia Avery
Max Klinger (German, 1857–1920). Abduction (plate 9 from Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove), 1881. Etching, drypoint, and aquatint on chine collé. Sheet: 18 15/16 x 26 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Obeliscolycny, 2013. Etching. Plate: 27 ¾ x 5 in.; sheet: 33 5/8 x 10 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Safe, Clean, Cheap: Phaethon in the 21st Century, 2011. Etching. Plate: 6 x 6 in.; sheet: 11 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Too Close to the Sun, 2013. Etching. Plate: 6 x 6 in.; sheet: 11 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Running on Empty, 2016. Etching. Plate: 6 x 6 in.; sheet: 11 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Mendacia Ridicula (The Wheel of Ixion), 2018. Etching. Plate: 6 x 6 in.; sheet: 12 x 11 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617). After Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (Netherlandish, 1562–1638). The Four Disgracers, 1588. Engraving. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Ship of Fools (Das Narrenschiff), 2018.Etching. Plate: 14 ¼ x 7 ½ in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). After the Deluge, 2022. Etching. Plate: 10 ½ x 7 ¾ in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Becalmed, 2023. Etching. Plate: 6 x 15 ¾ in.; sheet: 10 x 18 ¾ in. Courtesy of the Artist.

David Avery (American, born 1952). Concerning The Great Ship MOUR-DE-ZENCLE, 2016. Etching. Plate: 12 ¾ x 6 ¼ in.; sheet: 18 ¼ x 11 in. Courtesy of the Artist.
David’s galleries
 https://www.inclusionsgallery.com/ 
https://www.warnockfinearts.com/david-avery           
https://childsgallery.com/artist/david-avery/

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer continues talking to artists included in Print Austin’s 5x5 exhibition, juried by Myzska Lewis, a curator at Tandem Press. Second up is Anna Trojanowska, an artist and lithographer from Wroclaw, Poland. Anna creates collages made from lithographs, which she creates on a single marble slab in her garage studio. The works included in 5x5 seek to give the feeling of echolalia, a form of autism in which words and phrases are repeated over and over. That repetition is a central part of the collages and gives the feeling of uncontrolled reverberation.
Ann and Anna talk about falling in love with lithography, what it’s like to use marble instead of limestone, how the veins in marble wander as the stone is ground down, how to transfer sound into images, and the surprise technique she would turn to if she had to give up lithography.
Cover image by Marcin Simonides

Anna Trojanowska (Polish, born 1978). Echolalia_12, 2022. Carrara marble lithograph, collage. 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Anna Trojanowska (Polish, born 1978). Echolalia_14, 2022. Carrara marble lithograph, collage. 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Anna Trojanowska (Polish, born 1978). Echolalia_16, 2022. Carrara marble lithograph, collage. 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Anna Trojanowska (Polish, born 1978). Echolalia_19, 2022. Carrara marble lithograph, collage. 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Anna Trojanowska (Polish, born 1978). Echolalia_20, 2022. Carrara marble lithograph, collage. 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist.
 
Anna's website: https://litografia.pl/en/authors/ 

In s3e57, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Karen Kunc, an artist who manipulates reduction woodcuts in an amazing and unique way. Karen is a retired professor from the University of Nebraska, and is owner of Constellation Studios in downtown Lincoln. At the studio, which opened ten years ago, Karen offers workshops, curates exhibitions, and makes her own work. The studio includes equipment for papermaking, book arts, letterpress, and other means of creating prints.
 Karen’s work includes relief prints and artist books reflecting her signature nature-based lyrical abstraction. These images could be macro or micro: the biomorphic shapes could be aerial images of her native Nebraska, or the wiggles and squiggles could be forms held within our cells. Each print becomes a portal to an alternate reality, where the boundaries between the tangible and the intangible blur, inviting us to explore the complexities of our earthly domain.
 This all sounds simple, but Karen’s process is anything but. She uses stencils, fingers, hands, brushes and any other tool to gain amazing transitions between forms. Plus, she intuitively solves compositional challenges as she goes. Karen is an artist's artist whose groundbreaking woodcuts will amaze and delight you.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Array of Raressence, 2018. Woodcut. 72 x 26 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Coral Sanctuary, 2019. Woodcut. 72 x 26 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Blue Cascade, 2020. Woodcut. 14 1/2 x 42 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Gatherings, 2021. Woodcut. 14 x 29 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Distillation, 2018. Woodcut, etching, pochoir, and watercolor. 12 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Sacred Allegori, 2018. Woodcut, etching, pochoir, and watercolor. 24 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Drifts of Ice & Gold, 2022. Woodcut. 17 x 56 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Blooms of the Present Moment, 2023. Woodcut. 17 x 56 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Waves of Riches, 2016. Woodcut and pochoir. 13 1/2 x 57 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Panoply, 2016. Woodcut and pochoir. 13 1/2 x 57. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Verse from Macrocosmica, 2010. Woodcut. 29 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Release, 2020–21. Accordion-folded volume with etching, woodcut, and letterpress on various Japanese Nishinouchi papers. Closed: 7 x 4 in.; open: 7 x 56 in. Published by Blue Heron Press at Constellation Studios, Lincoln, Nebraska. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). The Way of Water, 2024. Accordion-folded volume with woodcut and letterpress on Japanese Nishinouchi. Closed: 11 x 7 1/2 in.; open: 11 x 45 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Incessant White Noise, 2013. Accordion-folded volume with woodcut and letterpress on Japanese Nishinouchi. Closed: 11 x 5 in; open: 11 x 35 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE.