Art & Culture

One Printmaker's World

By Susanne Katz

A print can be an original or a reproduction, but it is not a unique image. Prints are multiples produced in editions, and more that one process may be used for any print. Imagine how varied the options can be.

 

For Andi Arnovitz, these processes open up a world of possibilities. In her exhibition, opening June 3 at the Fine Family Art Gallery at the Marcus Jewish Community Center and curated by the artist, this well-known former Atlantan invites us to experience One Printmaker's World.

Andi's work is about the seen and the yet-to-be-revealed. Spiritually, that journey took her to Israel. Artistically, the search is repeated again and again at the printing press. "After moving to Israel," Andi says, "I became obsessed with what I couldn't see. In Jerusalem, you are always looking at walls, at gates, at shuttered windows. There are layers of stories behind each one. There is a depressing darkness, a heaviness of the stones, oppressive, and at the same time mysterious. This is what I am after: what you can't see, what lurks in the shadows and who was here before."

Andi studied graphic design and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, then worked as an advertising art director for companies in New York and Atlanta. After studying painting and printmaking at Chastain Art Center, Arnovitz worked in Atlanta's Circle B Press. Upon moving to Jerusalem in 1999, Andi began working at the Jerusalem Print Workshop, first in etching, then in screen printing.

The Jerusalem Print Workshop is a non-profit organization. Founded in 1974, this art center is dedicated to "the advancement of printmaking in Israel." Andi explains, "I think everyone who works there feels that it is a gem of the art world and a sort of national treasure. For one, it is in that beautiful old Arab building filled with sunlight; for another, they have so many presses and facilities. It is possible to work on any metal, print almost any size.

"The guidance you get, especially under Arik Kelimnik's tutorage, is extraordinary. You get a chance to work alongside master printers, as well as watch the numerous invited artists create pieces."

Located in a 19th century Ottoman building in Jerusalem, the gallery boasts the largest print and artist's book collection in the country.

The upcoming exhibition is divided into three sections focusing on silkscreens, etching and gyclees. It also includes selected monotypes created with lithography inks, Xerox lithography and color oil pastels.

Andi explains the processes involved:

• Silkscreen – a stencil process
  Andi uses oil-based inks, though colored paints may also be used in the silkscreen process. A single color is squeegeed through a silkscreen, or other stretched material, onto the paper. Paper stencils or glue may be used to block out the color where it is not wanted.
• Etching – an intaglio process
  An image is incised into a metal plate that is inked and then wiped clean. The paper catches the ink that remains in the depressed areas in the plate. Andi's exhibition includes etchings and aquatints for which the artist uses different surface preparations on the plate or ground.
• Gyclee – a digital process
  These digital prints were originally referred to as Iris prints. Ink was sprayed onto watercolor paper as it rotated on a drum printer. Archival paper and archival inks are used widely today.

Andi says that a printmaker is a strange breed. "We often, literally, work backwards, and there are many stages to creating a print. What one sees on the surface of the plate sometimes in no way resembles what the final print will be. Unlike drawing or painting, in which a work is never more than what you see at a given moment, a print is never totally revealed until the plate is inked and put through the printing press. There is always a sense of anticipation as the press is turned, and then, revelation as the blanket and protective paper are removed and the paper is peeled away from the plate."

Susanne Katz curates art and sits on the board of the Marcus JCC. She writes monthly about art for Julep.