Graphic art

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Graphic art is an umbrella term for forms of art that are based on processes that are used to reproduce what is painted, drawn or written or to represent any object in print by painting, drawing or writing.

Certain graphic arts can be counted among the visual arts, such as B. the woodcut , the etching , the copper engraving or the artist's lithography (see graphic ), but the largest part belongs to the reproductive arts , i.e. H. to those who work with mechanical and photomechanical methods.

Typology of the graphic arts

The graphic arts are divided into two main groups:

In the purely photographic process , the images are created by the action of light on sensitive documents and are made continuously by suitable processes.

In the printing process, the printed products are created by providing a printing form with color and then clapping it onto the substrate to be printed by pressing. Depending on the type of printing form, a distinction is made between letterpress , planographic , gravure and screen printing : With letterpress, the printing areas of the form are higher than the non-printing areas and therefore only come into contact with the inking roller and the paper sheet (woodcut, autotype , etc.). When the planographic printing areas are of the mold with the non-printing in a plane, the latter - obtained aqueous wet - the oil color repel ( chalk , spring and photolithography and -Algraphie , light pressure ). In gravure printing, the printing areas are deeper than the non-printing areas, from which the excess paint is removed by wiping while the indentations hold it in place (etching, copper engraving, heliogravure , stone engraving , guilloché , etc.). When printing through, the image areas of the printing form consist of a stencil on a color-permeable stencil carrier - a screen made of plastic or metal threads. Non-image areas are impermeable to color ( screen printing , risography ).

Origin of the graphic arts

The first invention in the field of modern graphic arts is xylography (wood cutting art ). While stamps and the like were cut in wood in ancient times, the figure woodcut comes from the Middle Ages.

In its beginnings, typography (book printing) also worked with the same tools as the woodcut-based picture printing company. Gradually, however, the repeated cut of one and the same type was replaced by polytype thanks to duplication by casting , and the type foundry and die cutting art arose .

The invention of chalcography (copperplate engraving) emerged from the goldsmith's art around the middle of the 15th century . In contrast to the woodcut, the lines of which are visible in the print remain when cutting, the engraver creates his image deepened in copper, whereby the deepened lines filled with black create the impression.

In the 19th century, the graphic arts experienced a renewed boom with the invention of lithography (stone printing ). Lithography offered every draftsman the means to bring his work directly onto the stone, which is easier to handle than wood or metal. The simple overprinting or transfer of existing impressions as well as the transfer of objects written or drawn on paper with special ink through the so-called autography increased the commercial importance of lithography. In artistic terms, too, it soon gained widespread use and in many cases replaced the more elaborate copperplate engraving, with siderography ( the art of steel engraving) being used for the finer, smaller-scale illustrations .

Since good woodcuts were expensive, attempts were also made in the field of letterpress printing to transfer the block letters to stone in order to print text and image together, as in woodcuts. With larger editions, however, the lithographic press could not compete with the typographic press, and so the so-called high lithography was used and the stone drawing was etched so high that a cliché taken from it could be printed with the letterpress press. Similar processes were based on the high etching of copper or zinc ( paniconography or zinc high etching process ).

In the 19th century, photography was also placed in the service of the graphic arts - initially by taking direct pictures on wooden sticks and then stabbing. In this way, each drawing could be transferred in the desired size completely true to the original (see photoxylography ). After the advent of the daguerreotype, attempts were first made to etch the images fixed on silver plates and make them printable. The following methods, among others, were used later: heliography , which is used to reproduce line and dot drawings, etc., albertotype (collotype), woodbury printing , photolithography and photozincography, as well as photogalvanography and helio or photogravure for copper printing in semitone manner.

Trade journal

The journal Die Graphischen Künste was published in Vienna from 1879 to 1933. It was published quarterly in the format of 38 × 40 cm self-published by the professional association "Society for duplicating art" .

The articles in the magazine mainly focused on graphic techniques, individual artists, collections and exhibition reports. The magazine contained graphics, book decorations and art supplements as illustrations. Initially connected to the classical academic tradition, it later showed an approach to the ideas of the Vienna Secession and its magazine Ver Sacrum , which had emerged again in the 1890s .

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Digitized Heidelberg University Library