In printmaking, Paris is premiere

In printmaking, Paris is premiere

IDB exhibit puts a new face on ancient tradition

By ROGER HAMILTON

Despite the popular image of the artist as the lone genius, art is often a collaborative enterprise, as between the sculptor and the foundry and the architect and the engineer.

Another such partnership, now being celebrated in a lively new exhibit at the IDB's Cultural Center Art Gallery, is between the artist and the printmaker. Held in conjunction with the Bank's annual meeting in Paris, France, the Washington, D.C., showing displays the works of 34 young French artists--none over age 40--whose sole unifying theme is an exuberance and eagerness to explore the frontiers of their art form.

Although Paris has long been a leader in the arts, its role in printmaking is unique. According to exhibit curator Félix Angel, it would be difficult to find another city with such a large number of printmaking shops able to produce works in every conceivable technique, including age-old lithography using actual stone. At the other end of the technical spectrum, the IDB exhibit includes works created by computer imagery.

The skills of Paris printmakers are such that artists from around the world have used their services, including such accomplished Latin American and Caribbean figures as Wilfredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Rufino Tamayo, José Luis Cuevas, Francisco Toledo, Antonio Seguí, Armando Morales and Fernando Botero.

Although the works displayed in the exhibit speak for themselves, Angel makes a special point of championing the significance of the print art form. Because prints are produced as multiple copies, they are frequently held in lesser esteem than art where only one--generally expensive--example exists. "The public assumes that if something is costly, it must be good and beautiful," says Angel, adding that this idea would be anathema to Plato or Aristotle. "Most of contemporary society is still unable to distinguish between what is cheap and that which, though low in cost, is still significant," he added.

Artistic merit aside, prints have some practical advantages even beyond their relative affordability. Easy to reproduce, prints have long had a considerable social impact--as vehicles of social criticism, humor, political satire, illustration, and the propagation of religious faith.

If the efforts of these 34 artists are any indication, prints will continue to be an important form of aesthetic expression for a long time to come.