Prints & Drawings

Prints & Drawings, a pictorial history
Gottfried Lindemann, Translated by Gerald Onn
Phaidon Press, 1970
ISBN 0 7148 1760 0

Introduction

Graphic art has always been overshadowed by the painted picture. With its small format, its economical use of colour and its delicate techniques it is a fundamentally less spectacular art form and consequently is known only to the small group of connoisseurs who visit the collections of prints and drawings or are themselves collectors. But although it has not been easy for the general publich to gain access to this special branch of the fine arts, its importance as an independent medium has long been established. After all, the great European graphic collections were started as early as the sixteenth century. This, however, is only of incidental interest. What really matters is the fact that line drawing -- which lies at the heart of graphic art -- actually forms the basis of all artistic activity. Children's drawings, the incised drawings of the prehistoric cave dwellers, and the Greek vase paintings all testify in their different ways to the primacy of linear composition over colour. Moreover, when an artist chooses to portray reality in linear terms he takes the crucial step which leads away from nature and towards abstraction. Colour, on the other hand, has constantly induced artists to emulate nature.

It would be wrong to think that, by restricting himself to a linear technique, the artist also restricts his power of expression. Drawings alone offer immense scope. There is the delicate silver point, the pencil -- which is capable of producing a whole series of greys -- chalk, charcoal and the reed pen, whose harsh line stands in marked contrast to the smooth stroke of the ink brush. But, quite apart from drawings, we also have the various graphic media, which permit of infinite variations extending from the black and white contrast of the linoleum cut to the painterly nuances of the etching. With this wide selection at his disposal the graphic artist is extremely well equipped. And, like every other artist, he can use colour to heighten his effects.

But however hightly we may feel inclined to rate prints and drawings as a genre, we should not overlook the fact that in the course of their development they have led a decidedly chequered existence. In certain historical periods the only drawings produced were those used as sketches or studies while in others drawings were regarded as an autonomous branch of art and included a number of really great works. The copper engravings and woodcuts of the Durer period were conceived in purely artistic terms, whereas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these techniques were used largely as a means of mechanical reproduction. In general we may say that linear composition reached its peak whenever it was pursued independently of painting and, conversely, that it reached its nadir whenever it became busservient to paitning. And so in this enquiry, in which we hope to trace the historical development of prints and drawings, we shall be assessing the imnportance of the graphic art of various periods with reference to paitning and the other artistic activies.

The illustrations include a number of less well known but none the less important prints, which it is hoped will now reach a wider public....







Well, well, i typed this purely for relax my figures. Published in 1970, it is now NOT interesting to me AT ALL. Maybe also because I am not a 'professional' painter, so the significance of drawings and paintings are equivalent on my mind. Besides, any painter would know drawings are important. Real interesting collectors would also keep an eye on their favourate artists' working process. Maybe only art sales are not so fond of prints and drawings.

我估计drawing和painting的区别和意义，有机会问问徐芒耀老师，他应该会回答得比较清楚。