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 many years have passed and innovations have been made, the message of this statement remains as true as ever.

This advanced lithography course is designed for students who already have prior experience with stone lithography and are looking to deepen and refine their technical and conceptual understanding of the medium. Lithography is one of the four core printmaking disciplines, but unlike any other, the printing matrix is completely flat, or planographic. Its success relies on the precise chemical conditioning of the printing surface to repel water where the image is and retain water where the image is not. Through an artful exploitation of the natural antipathy between grease and water, the lithographer is able to produce multiples.

While this course remains largely technique-based, demonstrations will be geared toward the specific needs, questions, and working methods of experienced students, rather than introductory instruction. Students will be encouraged to expand upon and refine their existing skills, pushing both traditional and non-traditional stone lithography processes in service of their own artistic goals. Under the guidance of the instructor, students should leave the course with a stronger command of stone lithography and a body of work in the form of proofs or a small edition pulled from their own hand-drawn and hand-printed stones.

What You Will Learn:
- Advanced approaches to the physical preparation of a litho stone, including leveling and graining.
- Traditional and non-traditional dry and wet drawing techniques for use in stone lithography, with an emphasis on refinement and experimentation.
-  A deeper understanding of the chemical principles behind stone lithography and stone processing for printing.