#PrintMonth beyond the RA
#PrintMonth beyond the RA
April’s best print-related events and exhibitions
By Tom Jeffreys
Published 26 March 2014
This April we’re celebrating the versatile art of printmaking. But it’s not just us: a whole host of print-related exhibitions are taking place across the capital. Here is our pick of the best.
-
Art on the Underground: pop-up print shop
Piccadilly Circus tube station, 8 – 19 April 2014
For the London Underground’s 150th anniversary in 2013, Art on the Underground commissioned 15 for 150 – fifteen underground artworks by fifteen leading contemporary artists, including Royal Academicians Wolfgang Tillmans and Gillian Wearing. Now, this April, the signed, numbered, limited edition prints are going on sale in a pop-up shop inside Piccadilly Circus tube station, just round the corner from the RA.
-
Michael Craig-Martin: Objects in our Time
Alan Cristea, to 2 May 2014
A wealth of new work by Michael Craig-Martin RA at Alan Cristea this spring. Pride of place goes to Objects of our Time, a new series of twelve screenprints that depict everyday items in the artist’s signature style. At the same time, the gallery is also hosting Master Prints selected by Michael Craig-Martin, for which the artist has brought together a selection of prints by major artists from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
-
Dieter Roth, Arnulf Rainer: Collaborations
Hauser and Wirth, to 3 May 2014
Hauser and Wirth revisits the decade-long collaboration between artists Dieter Roth and Arnulf Rainer that took place intermittently from 1972 onwards. The two produced pieces together or exchanged works in progress which they would complete independently from one another. This show at the Savile Row gallery focuses on works on paper, with collage and print featuring particularly strongly.
-
Hockney, Printmaker
Dulwich Picture Gallery, to 11 May 2014
The career of David Hockney RA has been notable for his work across a broad range of artistic techniques and processes: from the photocollages of the 1980s to the recent iPad drawings, unveiled here at the RA back in 2012. Coiniciding with the 60th anniversary of the very first print he produced, Hockney, Printmaker focuses on the artist’s long career as a printmaker. Over 100 works are on show, with etching and lithography featuring prominently.
-
Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance
National Gallery, to 11 May 2014
The National Gallery presents an extensive re-evaluation of German Renaissance paintings that charts their fluctuating receptions over the centuries. In addition to portraits by the likes of Hans Holbein the Younger and Lucas Cranach the Elder, the exhibition also includes work by one of the biggest names in the history of printmaking: Albrecht Dürer. His engraving of Adam and Eve promises to be a highlight.
-
Print of the Month (WWI)
Victoria and Albert Museum, to 30 June 2014
The first half of 2014 sees the V&A exhibiting a Print of the Month in the National Art Library. Rotating on a monthly basis, this is a chance for the museum to foreground selected works from its magnificent collection of works on paper. Until 12 April, the highlighted work is Reims 1914, an etching and aquatint by Raoul Varin that examines the damage caused to Rheims Cathedral by German shelling during the First World War.
-
Germany Divided: Baselitz and his generation
British Museum, to 31 August 2014
An exhibition of work by six German artists that explores life in the aftermath of war and under partition. On display are over 90 drawings and prints, half of which are by Markus Lüpertz, Blinky Palermo, AR Penck, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. The other half are the work of Georg Baselitz (whose collection of chiaroscuro woodcuts are currently on display at the RA as part of Renaissance Impressions). Look out in particular for Baselitz’s prints from the late 1960s to the late 1970s.
-
#PrintMonth
To celebrate a triple whammy of print-related exhibitions here at the RA, we’ve designated April as Print Month. Alongside a wealth of articles, image stories and videos, we’re encouraging everyone to get involved via social media. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, we’ll be sharing print-related material throughout the coming weeks, using the hashtag #PrintMonth. Feel free to share your favourite prints and printmakers, or ask us any print-related questions you might have. We’ll be sure to speak to one of our printmaking experts here at the RA and get back to you with the best answer we can.
Renaissance Impressions is in the Sackler Galleries until 8 June 2014.
Norman Stevens ARA is in the Tennant Gallery until 25 May 2014.
London Original Print Fair is in the Main Galleries, 24 - 27 April 2014.