exhibitions & events 2013

blueprint: Photography in Printmaking

Printmaking has always been driven by technologies developed outside of fine art practice for commercial or industrial uses.  Artists are attracted to innovative techniques and continue to use technologies made obsolete by industry.  Methods that once were the quickest and most efficient form of reproduction, such as engraving or lithography, continue to be used by artists because of their unique aesthetic qualities. In this way, fine art printmaking has become an ever-expanding field of multi-media approaches to original printmaking, embracing new digital technologies whilst maintaining traditional techniques of woodcut, etching and screenprinting.

The exhibiting artists are members of the Glasgow Print Studio selected to demonstrate the diversity of photographic imagery and technology in contemporary printmaking.

b lu e p r i n t is a collaboration between a number of Glasgow galleries, archives and museums taking place in February 2013.

Initially conceived as an exploration of the links between alternative photographic processes and fine art photographic printmaking (printing with ink), the event has grown in scope to encompass seven exhibitions, organized visits to five important archives, a programme of lectures and tie-ins with various engineering organizations.

b l u e p r i n t  has its hub at Trongate 103 in Glasgow’s Merchant City.

Trongate 103 exhibits include:

Modern, and much enlarged, cyanotype copies of some images from the Anna Atkins’ Book of British Algae.

Probably for the first time, a full joined‐up drawing (cyanotype/negative blueprint) of the ‘Big Loco’ from the original drawings for the 15F class locomotive housed in the Riverside Museum, Glasgow.

'blueprint' is the term commonly applied to a cyanotype print when used to reproduce engineering and architectural drawings;  the exhibits in blueprint2013 include many other alternative photographic and photographic printmaking processes.

For more details visit blueprint2013.com

Image: From top: Harry Magee, 'Sleeping Giants', photopolymer gravure, 18 x 11.5 cm. Roger Farnham, 'Sea Horses', copperplate photogravure, 23.5 x 14.5 cm. Jo Ganter, 'Man On Chair', etching and archival digital pigment print, 93 x 98.5 cm. Aoife McGarrigle, 'Ben Verackie Map', stone and photo lithography, 69 x 56.5 cm.