A print portfolio consists of a set of images, generally one per unbound sheet, which artists conceive of as a thematic unit, meant to be viewed in a specific order. One of the serial print’s great appeals for the printmaker is its ability to communicate ideas that require a sequential reading, much like the experience of reading a book.
The exhibition presents these 10 sets of prints as thematic series rather than as individual masterpieces, thereby offering new insight into their construction and meaning. The exhibition includes works by Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Rafaello Busoni, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Max Klinger, Oskar Kokoschka, and Max Pechstein. A number of techniques are represented: aquatint, etching, engraving, drypoint, lithography, color lithography, offset transfer lithography, and woodcut. Exploiting a range of graphic possibilities, artists used the portfolio to communicate a wide range of ideas and beliefs, sometimes incorporating their personal experiences to comment on this period of changes in the values and beliefs in their private and public lives.
Catalog
The German Print Portfolio 1890-1930: Serials for a Private Sphere | Published Spring 1992 — Out of Stock
Tour
The exhibition tour included: The Detroit Institute of Arts; Tampa Museum of Art; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; and Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.