Course Syllabus

ART 1060 Introduction to Printmaking

Course Description

This engaging general education course explores the dynamic art of printmaking. Course content will trace printmaking’s historical and cultural significance, the aesthetics of each process, and contemporary trends in the medium. Emphasis will be placed on studio practice including, the creation of original works of art in the four major printmaking processes, relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil (screen print), as well as explorations in papermaking and bookmaking. Critical analysis strategies will offer contextual insight and facilitate creative growth and a lifetime sensibility of the medium. A program fee is required.

Justification

This course is designed for students who wish to fulfill their Fine Arts GE credit by exploring the dynamic history of printmaking. Through lecture and demonstration, students will understand the impact that traditional printmaking, ‘the art of multiples,’ had on the evolution of humankind, industrial applications, and how contemporary artists utilize the powerful vocabulary of the graphic medium. Content is aligned to provide each student with an experience in theory and creative production within the four major printmaking processes. Printmaking is included in most higher education curriculums in the visual arts. In addition to supporting the General Education mission at Snow College, it will provide an offering to local and regional public educators to acquire points toward re-licensure through the State Office of Education. One of the tenured Snow College Visual Arts faculty members holds a graduate degree in the printmaking discipline, providing a unique strength and enthusiasm for the graphic medium.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. This course is designed to provide students an experience to actively engage with the creative process as it applies to the printmaking discipline. Course content investigates printmaking from a broad historical and cultural lens. The linkage of the past to the modern world will provide insight into printmaking’s impact on humanity. Through lecture, discussion, and research, the evolution of these processes will trace the contributions by various human cultures. This cultural and historical insight will be utilized in the practical application of the printmaking processes. Critical analysis of each finished print will address aesthetics, composition, conceptual merit, craftsmanship, historical context, and cultural awareness. Group critique sessions will informing future printmaking endeavors and promote literate patrons of the printmaking and the visual arts.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. This course aims to expand creative abilities, heighten cultural and historical awareness, and will promote an informed vocabulary and aesthetic sensibility of printmaking. Students will be responsible to read and conduct other types of research for both written responses and for creative insight. It is expected that students utilize proper vocabulary and context when presenting findings in written, verbal, and in visual form. This research will be evident in a final assessment of their own work, during group critique sessions, and manifested in each student’s creative work.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Visual art is an interdisciplinary reaction to the human experience. Artists are curious about the world around them and look to a variety of disciplines to problem-solve and answer questions that arise during the critical dialog between form and content and material and process. This class privileges the creation of images utilizing printmaking technologies. Each of these processes were invented and evolved through various disciplines within the natural sciences. Intaglio, planography, relief, and screen printing were developed through discoveries in and application of chemistry, geology, metallurgy, and physics, ultimately advancing the development of humanity. Only later did artists implement these discoveries to replicate works of art and to create original work. This appreciation of these interdisciplinary methods will be embedded within the printmaking process, creative output, and research by each student.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. This course introduces strategies to critically respond to any original print in an informed manner and the ability to identify prints according to process. Both oral and written critiques will be conducted throughout the semester to further each student's ability to reason and problem- solve in the visual arena. Students will critique prints of historic origin, works by peers, and their own work. This evaluation includes addressing formal design, concept, and craftsmanship. Both group critiques and casual critical discourse are important to the creative process. Students will utilize this insight and distill feedback to improve and inform future work.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Utilizing conceptual prompts and formal compositional strategies, each student will create original prints based on the four major processes within the printmaking discipline. Employing the principles of the visual language, students will carve, expose, and etch matrices that will be used to create multiple original impressions on paper. Each completed work will be critically evaluated in terms of successes and shortcomings. Ultimately, this verbal articulation will foster growth in future creative endeavors as students learn to visually communicate in the printmaking discipline. Utilizing conceptual prompts and formal compositional strategies, each student will create original prints based on the four major processes within the printmaking discipline. Employing the principles of the visual language, students will carve, expose, and etch matrices that will be used to create multiple original impressions on paper. Each completed work will be critically evaluated in terms of successes and shortcomings. Ultimately, this verbal articulation will foster growth in future creative endeavors as students learn to visually communicate in the printmaking discipline.
2. Provide an informed synopsis of the performing and/or visual arts in the contexts of culture and history through reading and interpreting pertinent information using a variety of traditional and electronic media. Each student will demonstrate a fluency in historical context by articulating linkages of printmaking to many facets of historical and modern society. Artisans have utilized the reproductive potential of printmaking in every world culture for thousands of years. Through assigned readings, lecture, demo, independent research, and writing, students will be able to articulate where, when, and how each printmaking process was developed and appreciate the historical contribution of each, by many world cultures, to the greater history of humankind. This understanding will be assessed through exams, writings, critiques, and application of this knowledge to their own creative work.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the conceptual and elemental principles fundamental to the creation of various forms of artistic expression. This course privileges the hands-on creation of original works of art utilizing the processes of printmaking. Students will be exposed to a variety of creative methods to assist in the development of concept into their prints. Ideation strategies will be implemented to assist in conceiving and composing original prints that encourage interpretation of assignment prompts. Through practice, this collaboration of form and content will promote more meaningful imagery that not only address aesthetics concerns but promotes the development of narrative, social commentary or political satire, or produces a meaningful formal experience for the viewer.
4. Exhibit an ability to critically analyze artistic works using appropriate techniques, vocabulary, and methodologies. Students will practice the process of critical analysis as it applies to both formal and conceptual principles within the printmaking discipline. These topics include material, process, craftsmanship, formal composition, historical context, and interpretation of concept and narrative. Strategies for critical analysis, both verbal and written, will be taught and fostered throughout the course. This practice in critical analysis, both in a formal setting and as casual discourse, will promote more informed viewers and makers who become continually engaged in the act of critical evaluation with their peers in a collective studio environment. Development of a critical eye will inform their own work and the work of peers by developing the ability to recognize success and identify weakness, ultimately fostering improvement in current and future work.

Course Content

Through demonstrations, slide lectures, readings, practical application, and critiques, students will integrate printmaking processes into original creative work. These teaching methods are tailored to accommodate unique learning styles that will culminate with completion of a variety of creative projects. Assignment prompts are designed to engage students in the medium and will push students to explore varied conceptual responses as they begin to communicate within the graphic language of printmaking. This course will include study of the following: • Demonstrations of each printmaking, papermaking, and bookmaking process;• Discussion and practice of pertinent ethical standards, traditions, and taboos in editioning, proofing, numbering, and signing original prints (aka: the art of multiples);• Exams and quizzes, research, and analysis will assess each student's competency in context, theory, and practical application of each process;• Exploration of art historical context of printmaking including the study of major figures and movements within the genre;• Illustrated lectures and discussions on various facets of the printmaking discipline including historical contributions by many world cultures;• Image development strategies including, the formal dynamics of two-dimensional composition, historical context, narrative, and concept;• Individual and group critiques designed to promote critical analysis of each student's own work, the work of their peers, and historical and contemporary prints, promoting a critical dialog between the artist, the artwork, and the viewer;• Readings from the text to supplement information provided during demos and lectures;• Studio explorations in the four major printmaking processes including, relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil processes as well as an introduction to papermaking and bookmaking;• The completion of a series of hand-pulled prints and artists’ books utilizing an accepting approach to artmaking.• Utilization of best safety practices in the printmaking studio;