The Great Book of Graphic Arts

About the project

The main aim of this project is to collect the graphic art works of the artists from the second half of the 20^th century whose output has never been available for a wide audience.

The presentation of trends in arts that, for various reasons, have never had a chance to become a part of the mainstream of the 20^th century arts.

The idea lying behind this project is to rescue from oblivion both the artists and their works that were excluded from the mainstream due to geopolitical reasons, to preserve the works that were unluckily created too early or too late to prevent the process nowadays called "exclusion", which refers to the fringes of time and space, from taking place.

We want to find the origins of the graphic arts of the 21st century and the directions in which they are now heading, for, as some critics claim, the graphic arts are now on the edge (Richard Noyce "Printmaking on the Edge").

The aims of the project:

The review and verification of the artistic output in the field of graphic arts in the second half of the 20^th century
The selection of iconographic material, taking into account:
1. the fringes of time and space of the graphic arts from the second half of the 20^th century,
2. the geopolitical exclusion (Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain) and the aesthetic exclusion (the prevailing aesthetic doctrines which blocked all forms and meanings that were different from those endorsed by the cultural and arts centres and their promoters – gallery owners).
Compiling the iconographic material into "The Great Book of Graphic Arts from the Second Half of the 20^th Century" in:
1. an analogue form – a screen print; a luxurious edition with signed graphic works of living artists,
2. a digital form – a publication in the form of a multimedia presentation,
3. the form of a website - a discussion forum concerning the future of the graphic arts; it will also present the output of research inquiries concerning problems connected with graphic arts from the second half of the 20^th century,
4. a scholarly publication, analyzing the collected iconographic material in the following fields:
  - innovative research into material and technological issues,
  - formal research penetrating the areas common to graphic arts and other media.
The exchange of the works of art (graphic arts) and artists among the organizations promoting culture.

Background

The graphic arts of the second half of the 20^th century were shaped by the multitude of trends connected with the researches in the field of material and technological issues, the formal research penetrating the areas common to graphic arts and other media and the research which served as an example of the social and sociological problems.

The innovation and experiment do not usually stem from the content, but from the fascination for the form as such which, after a while, becomes worn out, empty and no longer inspiring.

The fringes, the centres situated far away (not only in spatial but also in temporal terms) from the mainstream of the artistic establishment, is the one of the most fascinating areas of graphic arts.

Nowadays it seems interesting that changes are mostly stimulated by the works created outside the mainstream of graphic (and other) arts rather than by the main art centres which promote universal products for the Global Village audience.

Triennials in Ljubljana, Fredrikstad and Jyvaskyla are collapsing. The rules of presenting art works at the exhibitions of graphic arts are being changed, e.g. in Prague, the organizers resigned from the graphic arts exposition and replaced it with installations. New exhibitions and new centres presenting graphic arts in Sophia, Uzice and Bitola have been opened.

Void cannot be accepted and, therefore, it has been filled with international presentations of graphic arts in Juan, Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires, (Argentina), the biennial in Varna (Bulgaria), Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina), India (Bharat Bhavan International Biennial) and Egypt (Egyptian International Print Triennial).

We are witnessing the lack of connection between the past and the present of graphic arts. What artistic circles aim at is to create a clear image of the phenomena in the field of graphic arts, based on retrospection and reflection on this problem.

The history of arts has many times shown that the continuous verification of: artistic concepts, forms and aesthetics is marked with numerous examples of oversight, misinterpretation, negligence and manipulation that aimed at bringing profits to some people and resulted in the fact that many important artistic facts were not noticed in time or were intentionally neglected as formally or ideologically incorrect as regards the concepts prevailing at the given time.

The idea lying behind this project is to rescue from oblivion both the artists and their works that were excluded from the mainstream due to geopolitical reasons, to preserve those artefacts that were unluckily created too early or too late to prevent the process nowadays called "exclusion", which refers to the fringes of time and space, from taking place.

The most crucial aim of the project organizers is to review and verify the artistic output in the field of graphic arts from the second half of the 20^th century. The iconographic material will be selected on the basis of the professional and artistic assessment of collected works. The analysis will cover graphic art works made using the traditional (relief printing, intaglio, planographic printing) and modern (screen printing, offset printing, digital printing) techniques.

Another field of analysis is the evaluation of works, taking into account artistic issues. These issues are oriented towards the values that have contributed to shaping modern concepts and trends in contemporary graphic arts which use various media to introduce certain concepts of representation and various ideas.

The choice of iconographic material will be carried out taking into consideration the fringes of time and space of graphic arts from the second half of the 20^th century. Remaining under the influence of communism, the regions of Central and Eastern Europe created their own unique areas and forms of representation. The output of these cultural regions - isolated, but not from the roots of the Eastern art, has developed its own language and techniques of representation which introduce many interesting values into the European culture.

The dynamic development of the Western culture based on consumption pushed the achievement of the artists from the Eastern and Central Europe aside. Nevertheless, many interesting events take place in this area as far as graphic arts are concerned (Triennial in Cracow) during which the works of artists from the Western, Central and Eastern Europe are presented. The selection of works is carried out according to specific rules which are changed every three years. These rules were adjusted to the phenomena that had developed behind the Iron Curtain. The artists and works that did not comply with the trends established by the western authors were neglected.

In this way, a double exclusion took place; geopolitical exclusion became a restriction imposed by the contemporary communist government, which found its reflection in the socialist realism; another kind of exclusion resulted from the self-limitation of the members of the judging panel. Over the years, the domination of the political ideology which determined what is created and what is exhibited has decreased. In this period valuable works of art were made. They went beyond the narrow confines of the aesthetic doctrines.

A similar loss of values takes place on the other side of the Iron Curtain where the aesthetic doctrines blocked all forms and meanings that were different from the ones endorsed by the cultural and arts centres and their advocates – merchants.

Artists, however, had a wide scope of freedom. Some attempts to enter the public consciousness and gain recognition in the society proved successful. Yet the effects of conflicts of independent artists with the prevailing doctrines appeared to be economically painful for the former.

The loss of values took place on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Graphic arts are one of the areas which were sorely tried. In order to choose the values and artists that have had a crucial influence on the development of the traditional and contemporary graphic arts based on modern technologies, we should review all events connected with graphic arts.

The project should aim at finding the artists and works that were excluded for the above-mentioned reasons and, therefore, could not gain recognition in the society.

Another task that will help to answer the question whether these works of art have shaped the contemporary assessment of modern graphic arts is collecting the iconographic material and developing a proper methodology, taking into account the loss of values resulting from the fact that the works of art were not available for a wide audience.

Finding catalogues of exhibitions organized on both sides of the Iron Curtain and choosing those artists who have not been noticed by the judging panels for the above-mentioned reasons is the first step towards identifying the neglected works, artists and artistic phenomena. In the academic centres which focused on activities connected with graphic arts, there are artists whose didactic work has exerted a powerful influence on many well-known authors who owe being noticed by independent critics to their masters. These masters should be rescued from oblivion.