A Century of Photogravure
Posted September 8, 2011
Boston, Mass. — An exhibition at Lesley University’s Art Institute of Boston (AIB) brings together 20 artists and over 60 of the finest works ever produced by the manual photogravure process.
The exhibit, on view now through Oct. 23 at the AIB Main Gallery, 700 Beacon St., Boston, features works by Steichen, Coburn, Evans, Strand, Siskind, Friedlander, Parke-Harrison, Thorne-Thomsen, Smith, Levinthal, Osterburg, de la Torre, and others.
An invention that coincided with the birth of photography, photogravure converts the silver image into intaglio, or photo-etching. Initially used as a means of reproducing photographic imagery in journals and books, gravure — especially hand pulled gravure — became prized for its own luminous syntax and has attracted major photographic artists and print-makers.
Alfred Stieglitz chose photogravure for the reproduction of works by the photo-secessionists for Camerawork, images now considered equivalent in beauty to the original silver prints.
Artists like Coburn, Evans and Osterburg became skilled plate makers while others collaborated with photogravure studios. Jon Goodman, based in Massachusetts, and Paul Taylor in New Hampshire are two major gravure artists keeping the medium alive with their own work and collaborations with artists like Kiki Smith, Robert Parke-Harrison, Roy DeCarava as well as introducing younger emerging artists (de la Torre, Victor Vasquez) to the process.
As demanding as any of the intaglio processes, gravure also allows for manipulation of the print from image to image by adjustments to inking, wiping the plate, and additional work post-production. Lothar Osterburg, one of a handful of contemporary artists working in gravure, approaches each print as the basis for additional drawing and painting.
The exhibition has been curated by exhibition director Bonnell Robinson, and the majority of the works are drawn from Boston area collections.