0.3 Introduction: the birth of american artist printmaking  (Page 3/9)

In 1883, for example, the noted critic M. G. van Rensselaer reflected M.G. van Rensselaer in The Century Magazine, Vol. XXV, No. 4, February 1883, page 486. upon the New York Etching Club as:

an association formed by a few earnest students of the art to incite activity by brotherly reunions andto spread its results by annual exhibitions. The young society went through that struggle for existence which seems ordained forbabes of every sort—even for those which, like this artistic infant, are well fathered and tenderly watched over. The public wasindifferent, and some of the club’s own members were too much absorbed in other work even to heed that condition of membershipwhich prescribed that each should produce at least two plates every year. But though its survival was due to the pains andsacrifices of a few men who deserve well of the republic, the Etching Club is more potent than any other influence in aiding theprogress of the art among us and in winning the public to its love.

Early on, many of the practitioners of etching were fascinated by the process, including the accidents that could occur while theplate was submerged in mordant. Chance atmospheric accents and the plates that produced them were prized by the American artists. They quickly found means andtechniques for controlling their “accidents,” and the employment of these new techniques enhanced the general feeling of creative freedom associated withetching. Artistically derived special effects differentiated the etchings from the highly standardized prints associated with engraving and lithography—artsdominated by schools of technique. The more artists experimented with the etching process, the more they shared their technical discoveries at clubmeetings, in private studios, and in books and articles they wrote. This widespread sharing of technological discoveries set the stage for a practice andcode of conduct that is at the core of American artist printmaking today.

During the earlier years of the New York Etching Club, the color and quality of printing papers took on great importance to theprintmakers. They perfected Chine collé, a paper laminating process, and began experimenting with alternate print matrixes, such as silk. Soon the atmosphericeffects of palm-wiping plates (a signature of many early club member prints) gave way to new methods of carrying tone. Larger and larger plates were beingworked by important artists, and by the late 1880s color inks began appearing regularly in prints. Soft ground, a technique that could impart elements ofdrawing and some of the qualities of lithography, was widely introduced in artist studios and used to superb effect. The end result of all of thistechnical development and aesthetic specialization was the division of artists into roughly defined competitive schools of practice.

The burgeoning popularity of the new free hand etchings during the mid-1880s coincided with a post-Civil War boom that helpedcreate an expansive American market for art. The boom stimulated advances in graphic arts printing and the development of new reproduction technologies inmechanical engraving, photography, photogravure, and color lithography. These events helped usher in the establishment of new fine art print publishers,dealers and collectors, along with a consumer market for new magazines and books full of art criticism and articles—illustrated with original etchings. Themerger and success of these efforts formed a new paradigm of sorts as artists’ clubs and societies for nearly every aspect of fine art appeared in New York,Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, among other large American cities. And at the hub of much of the excitement for most of the 1880s was theetching needle.