Print by Print, Step by Step

In the nineteenth century there was a vogue for print series which were often published without a text, but had historical, literary, social or religious themes. Two artists who catered to the contemporary taste for these series were James Tissot and Max Klinger. Tissot (France, Great Britain, 1836–1902) produced a cycle of etchings after his own paintings illustrating the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son. By placing his characters in modern settings and in modern dress, Tissot emphasized the relevance of the parable's moral message for his audience. Max Klinger (Germany, 1857–1920) created the series Vom Tode. Erster Teil (On death. Part one) to depict the brevity and bleakness of human life. Each of Klinger's episodes is a self-contained narrative, while the symbolism in the group as a whole produces an overall mood of pessimism.

Many artists have also used print series to explore and develop humorous or satirical themes. Recalling William Hogarth's renowned Rake's progress of the eighteenth century, David Hockney (Great Britain, born 1937) created his witty A rake's progress, which illustrates sixteen events in the life of a dissipated young man. Hockney's contemporary rake was the artist himself, who came into money, left his home in Britain, and fell prey to the perils and temptations of modern America.

The French Impressionist artist Claude Monet (1840–1926) painted one sequence of haystacks and another of Rouen Cathedral, intending in both to show the changing effect on his subject of light and atmosphere, moment by moment, from dawn to dusk. About three-quarters of a century later, the American artist Roy Lichtenstein (born 1923) quoted Monet's famous and hallowed motifs in two sets of prints. Lichtenstein's haystacks and cathedrals were meant to be: 'manufactured Monets ... an industrial way of making Impressionism—or something like it—by machine-like technique'. The artist achieved his effect by means of combinations of dot patterns—manipulated so as to resemble photomechanical half-tones—and used his colours to indicate different times of day.

Many artists associated with the Pop Art movement—among them Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Richard Hamilton—relied heavily in their print series on the repetition and variation of a single image. Since many of the images employed by these artists were taken from the mass media or from commercial art, their use called into question the idea of originality, as well as the processes appropriate for making art itself.

Andy Warhol (United States, born 1928) took easily identifiable and often banal subjects from the pages of newspapers or magazines and had them photomechanically transposed on to canvas or paper. He repeated photographic 'stills' of superstars like Elvis Presley, or newspaper photographs, such as the electric chair, in almost identical images. For the Electric chair screenprints, Warhol reused the same screen, to form a group of works which was ominous yet deadpan.

Another American, Jasper Johns (born 1930), employed the arabic numerals, '0' to '9', for his Black numeral series. Figures 0–9. The artist used the same lithographic plates and stones, except for number '9' which was redrawn, to print Color numeral series. Figures 0–9, adding further complexity by carefully ordering primary and secondary variations of colour within the series.

Many of the conceptual artists have also worked in series. For artists such as Sol LeWitt (United States, born 1928), the idea, or concept, was of primary importance, while the execution of that concept was secondary. The idea, to use LeWitt's words, 'became a machine that makes a work'.

In Bands of color in four directions and all combinations, LeWitt used two etching plates: one with parallel etched lines, the other with the same lines ending in a point. He then had all possible combinations printed, using these plates and four different colours, until all variations were exhausted. LeWitt intended his set to be viewed as a collective work, where the effect of the whole was far greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Since the 1970s printmakers have continued to explore the potential of prints in series. Meanwhile, millions of people every day enjoy the most popular and widely disseminated serial prints—the comic-strip, comic books and photo novels.