Addressing a crowd gathered for the 1929 Scammon Lectures at The Art Institute of Chicago, artist and printer, Bolton Brown, said of lithography, “here is an art of which we have but touched the hem of the garment…” While a good many years have passed, with innovations made, the message of this statement remains as true as ever. For those students with little to no experience in lithography, this course will serve as an introduction to the seemingly magical process of lithography. Lithography is one of the four core printmaking disciplines. But, unlike any other, the printing matrix in lithography is completely flat, or planographic. Therefore, its success is based on the proper chemical conditioning of the printing surface to simultaneously repel water where the image is and hold water where the image is not. This way, through an artful exploitation of the mutual antipathy of grease and water, the lithographer is able to produce multiples.

This is largely a technique-based class, but the enterprising student should leave the course with a rudimentary understanding of stone lithography and the physical fruits of their labor in the form of proofs or a small edition taken from their own hand-drawn and hand-printed stone. Intermediate and advanced students will be encouraged to subordinate the hallmarks of traditional and non-traditional stone lithography to their own artistic ends under the guidance of the instructor.

What you will learn in this course:
1. The physical preparation of a litho stone including leveling and graining.
2. Traditional and non-traditional dry and wet drawing techniques for use in stone lithography.
3. The basic, chemical principles behind stone lithography and stone processing for printing.