Printmaking isn’t new, nor is the fact that women work as printmakers.
“Women always made prints. All the way back in the Renaissance, there were women printmakers, so there have always been women making prints,” David Acton, curator of the “Modern Women’s Prints” exhibit at the Snite Museum of Art, says.
The exhibit, which continues through March 18, features pieces from the museum's collection and brings together a diverse set of images and artists.
“There just happen to be, not totally by design, a real huge range of artists,” Acton says. "So we have Native American artists, we have Asian artists, we have African-American artists, we have very traditional artists and people who are sort of working from a real intuitive place, as opposed to somebody who went to art school. So there is that range, and I think that’s really interesting and exciting.”
The technology of printmaking dates back to the 15th century.
"The basic idea is that for a long time, since the Renaissance, before the Renaissance, the 14th century, people have been making prints, so they can share original works of art with other people,” Acton says. “It’s still happening. It’s still going on. People are still doing it.”
Acton says that even with today’s computer technology, printmaking is still popular among artists.
“Even though you think of it as kind of an old technology that’s been superseded by computer printing, people are still doing it, lots of people, millions of people around the world,” he says. “I think that’s an interesting and exciting thing to know that there are even great printmakers working in South Bend.”
The Snite exhibit features prints as far back as the 1940s all the way to the current acquisition of a Judy Pfaff piece. The large instillation, inspired by the artist’s travels through India, is the second of what will be 12 prints.
