From November 3, 2000 to January 13, 2001, the AXA Gallery (formerly the Equitable Gallery) will present an unprecedented historical exhibition tracing innovation in printmaking. Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process features 150 works representing exploration in every print medium from the earliest woodcuts to the latest digital technology.

In this wide-ranging exhibition, prints by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Giulio Campagnola, Rembrandt van Rijn, William Blake, Francisco Goya, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Lesley Dill, and Damien Hirst are juxtaposed in ways that will challenge preconceptions regarding the medium and methodology of printmaking.

Pablo Picasso Femme au fauteuil no. 1 (Woman in an Armchair No. 1), 1948-49 Lithograph, 27 3/16 x 20 1/16 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Curt Valentin Bequest. © 2000 Estate of Pablo Picasso/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

The exhibition situates the print within the fine art tradition and emphasizes the richness and creativity that printmakers have achieved through transformations in the medium. This analysis of the role of technology in printmaking brings fresh perspective to the study of prints.

Hard Pressed launches the exhibition program of International Print Center New York (IPCNY), a new organi­zation devoted to the understanding and appreciation of the fine art print. The exhibition will be accompanied by a com­prehensive catalogue of the same title published by Hudson Hills Press, with full-color plates and essays by the curators.

The AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Financial, Inc. and its subsidiary The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, which have also provided major funding and support for the exhibition.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes Asta su Abuelo (As Far Back as His Grandfather), plate 39 from Los Caprichos, 1799 Etching and aquatint, image 8 1/2 x 6 in. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

From chiaroscuro woodcut to etching, lithography, photo-offset, and high-definition digital imaging, artists have continually reinvented the print. Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process charts innovative printmaking as it has evolved over the past six centuries, illuminating the roles of artists, master printers, and publishers. The evolution of the print demonstrates how artists have revived older methods, used current techniques, and embraced the technological advancements of their time from all fields almost as soon as they are invented, adapting them in unanticipated ways.

The early history of printmaking is one of successive refinement. Albrecht Dürer’s virtuoso cross-hatched images, such as the two woodcuts on display from the Apocalypse series of the late 1490s, were stylistic improvements upon rudimentary devotional woodcuts of the early 15^th century. At this time, the serial nature of the print was its most salient quality as it made possible the communication of visual information over great expanses of geography in ways not previously imaginable. As a result, the printed image is credited with advances in the sciences as well as the humanities, and prints tended to be prized as much for their information as for their artistry.

Artists interested in disseminating work could either make their own prints or collaborate with a professional printmaker or publisher to create prints based on their drawings or paintings. In the 17^th century, Rembrandt, a painter who was closely involved in all aspects of the creation of his prints, inked and wiped his plates himself, imbuing his prints with unique expressive qualities, more like drawings or paintings.

Paul Gauguin Te Atua (The Gods), from the Noa Noa series, 1893-94 Woodcut on endgrain boxwood, printed in color; 8 x 13 7/8 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.

Highlighting the enduring interrelationship of art and science, Hard Pressed explores the ways in which artists have appropriated the use of new techniques. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, ironworkers’ methods of decorating armor and other items influenced the artists who developed etching. Among the most prominent was Daniel Hopfer, one of the earliest etchers, whose Three Swiss Soldiers, c. 1535, is on display here. Similarly, lithography was originally created by a playwright trying to copy his work; the process was later adapted by artists. An example of a very early fine art lithograph on display is Moses and the Brazen Serpent, 1803, by Wilhelm Reuter. More recently, industrial materials and processes have been utilized in unorthodox ways. In Richard Artschwager’s Locations, 1969, the use of formica and plexiglass removes the artist further from the work, a trend continued by artists working in digital media.

Over time, artists decided to experiment with more than one printing method in a single work. Etching and engraving were combined in the 17^th and 18^th centuries; examples on display include two works from the Four Elements series, c. 1620, by the Dutch artist Jan van de Velde II. In later centuries, Edvard Munch synthesized lithography and woodcut, as in his Vampire, 1895-1902. In the 20^th century, artists such as Claes Oldenburg liberated the print from two-dimensional paper surfaces (his Profile Airflow, 1969, includes a cast polyurethane relief), continuing to push the practice forward.

Gradually, the original print became increasingly desirable for collectors, culminating in the production of signed, limited editions in the late 20^th century that impose a sense of uniqueness on this potentially infinite medium. Many artists throughout the 20^th century, including Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Peter Halley, recognized the inherent irony in this and sought to subvert the preciousness of the traditional fine print for political as well as aesthetic reasons.

Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process is curated by Elizabeth Wyckoff, Print Specialist at The New York Public Library, and David Platzker, Director of Printed Matter in Manhattan, who were invited by IPCNY to explore the relationship between aesthetics and technology from the inception of Western printmaking. Ms. Wyckoff’s lively but exacting scholarly analysis of the development of traditional print media through World War II grounds the material in a historical context. Mr. Platzker takes a less linear approach, reflective of contemporary art criticism, appraising new technologies and demonstrating how artists often subvert norms.

The presentation of Hard Pressed at the AXA Gallery will be accompanied by informal lectures, workshop visits, and other educational programming. Under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts’ Technical Assistance Program, the exhibition will then travel to three cities on its national tour: Boise, Idaho; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Naples, Florida.

International Print Center New York is a non-profit institution founded in 1995 to promote the greater appreciation and understanding of the fine art print worldwide. Through its innovative programming, it fosters a climate for the enjoyment, examination, and serious study of artists’ prints from the old master to the contemporary. IPCNY recently moved to its first public space, located in New York’s West Chelsea, where beginning in September 2000 its New Prints Program will present exhibitions of the most recent prints issued by workshops internationally. An information center and website gather and present print resources for public use, while members’ events take IPCNY’s constituency to workshops and galleries.

Roy Lichtenstein Folded Hat, from the portfolio SMS 4, 1968 Silkscreened in red, yellow, blue, and white on vinyl, handfolded; 16 3/4 x 14 15/16 in. sheet folded to 14 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 1/2 in. Published by The Letter Edged in Black Press, New York. Courtesy Reinhold-Brown Gallery, New York.

AXA Gallery presents works from all fields of the visual arts, including exhibitions originating outside of New York that would not otherwise have a presence in the city, as well as works from New York collections that would benefit from preservation and public presentation. The AXA Gallery is located in the atrium lobby of Equitable Tower, 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street in New York City. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.