Intaglio Techniques at Crown Point Press

Innovations in fine art printmaking proliferated in postwar American art, and the most remarkable advancements in intaglio techniques were made in the 1970s, at Crown Point Press in Oakland, California. Kathan Brown (b. 1935) had founded the press, in 1962, with the intention of reviving the art of printing from incised metal plates—a desire that responded to her generation’s concern that such processes would disappear due to a lack of skilled practitioners.

While the art world increasingly focused on the artist as an individual, Brown established a collaborative workshop model that brought together artists, printers, and publishers. For example, Robert Feldman, director of Parasol Press in New York, worked with Brown to identify artists, including Robert Mangold, who would benefit from the opportunity to explore techniques that underscored the Minimalist commitment to spatial dimensionality and serialization.

The 1970s also marked the emergence of Conceptual art. Brown introduced many artists, including Joan Jonas and John Cage, to the craft of printmaking, coinventing experimental techniques that demonstrated the medium’s ability to respond to the modern world. Cage’s Score Without Parts, for instance, embraces the musical score common to choreography, highlighting the intrinsic performativity in printmaking processes as well as in dance.

This selection of prints reveals that even as late-twentieth-century artists challenged the bounds of traditional media, they increased meaning in their work by exploring the inherent characteristics of materials; in these cases, intaglio techniques were preeminent.

Erica Cooke

Ph.D. Student, Department of Art & Archaeology

Andrew W. Mellon Research Assistant