Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg: the Chemistry of the Photographic

by June Woest Updated, January 2001

---

"The boundaries between photography and other media--painting, sculpture, or performance--have been made increasingly porous, leaving the photographic residing everywhere but nowhere in particular." Geofrey Batchen

---

Although the three works by Robert Rauschenberg that follow have characteristically photographic elements, it can also be said that the singular, solitary, silver-based photograph is absent in all three of them--Untitled [Sue](1950), Dante Editions(1963), and Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba II(1986). In these works Rauschenberg might blur the realistic image, present it by layering and shifting, but never does the original quality of the photograph rest unmarred or in perfect chiaroscuro. Rauschenberg's chaotic use of the representational image, along with his methods of technical experimentation using light, solvent-transfer methods, and photo-mechanical silk-screen processes, underscore what will essentially be explained here as the photographic character found in his three mixed-process and mixed-media works. The three works are each separated by at least 10 years, stretching a span of thirty-six years of Rauschenberg's career. His disciplined experimentation with chemical materials and mechanical processes is also part of an experimental field in which the medium of photography has resided since its conception, in the late 1700's; arguably beginning with the experiments of England's physicist and chemist, Thomas Wedgewood.

Handbook of Non-Toxic Intaglio

Maryland Printmakers - Book Review

Handbook of Non-Toxic Intaglio
Acrylic Resists, Photopolymer Film & Solar Plates Etching,
by Henrik Bøegh (2003, Denmark)

"This small, densely written book is a lovely source to complement the work of Keith Howard (The Contemporary Printmaker, Intaglio-Type & Acrylic Resist Etching, reviewed in the March 2004 issue of InPrint as well as Mr. Howard’s earlier book, Non-Toxic Intaglio Printmaking from 1998, which may now be out of print). Mr. Bøegh details some techniques for providing basic and readily available materials as environmentally friendly, water-soluble approaches for duplicating etching techniques. He uses both metal plates and photopolymer film/solar plates as matrices. The book is well developed, with logical and thoughtful presentations of methods, and with excellent illustrations, including many of Mr. Bøegh’s own prints that are used to demonstrate how the techniques succeed. In addition, a web site is referenced for locating Material Safety Data Sheets for each of the materials suggested.

Overall, the book is a helpful addition to a printmaker’s library. It is available from the publisher - specific book and ordering information:www.artbag.dk/ge/uk/Handbook/index.html)

Online Courses

Online courses at Tate Online Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art

The courses are about modern and contemporary art in the Tate collections. Level 1 course is free, it is self-taught and you can spend as long, or as little time, as you like to complete the course. You do not need to have special knowledge of art or of computers to do this course. The only requirement is that you have access to the Internet.

"Although the course is open to all, it is designed for people who might be new to modern or contemporary art, or new to learning in general. You may or may not have visited any one of the four Tate galleries. You may or may not have been to college to study art or any other subjects. In short, the course is for anyone, regardless of how much you know about art or about computers. The course does, however, require some interest in modern art so that you can get involved right from the start. As you work your way through the course, you will find that you will learn a bit more about modern art with every page you visit. By the end of the course you should find that you have a good grasp of some of the main talking points about both modern and contemporary art. You will also be familiar with artworks in the Tate Collection, as these are the main works that we will be looking at."

New Directions In Digital Art Syllabus for New Directions In Digital Art

Professor Mark Amerika
Fall 2004
Tues/Thurs 5:00-7:30
N275 (Experimental Digital Arts Lab)

Analysis of visual images: Ross Woodrow

This site contains supplemental material relevant to the course Analysis of the Visual Image which is offered as a second-year and third-year elective in the Bachelor of Fine Art and the Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Fine Art courses at The University of Newcastle Australia. Consequently, the language used and references cited are aimed at the level of undergraduate students training as artists, art professionals and art teachers.

The history of Impact

Impact 1999

Impact Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference series Impact Conference originated at the Centre for Fine Print Research and was hosted at UWE in 1999 in association with the Royal West of England Academy and the Southern Graphics Council USA. The conference was attended by over 400 delegates from more than 20 countries with presentations of academic papers, workshops, print process demonstrations, exhibitions and lectures on a multitude of contemporary and historical print practice.

Conference proceedings from the first Impact Conference Proceedings are available in hard copy or on CD-Rom, edited by Carinna Parrama

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/amd/cfpr/impdata.htm

The Cerebral Versus the Retinal in Printmaking

The following article is a section from a key note address titled "In Praise of Neglected Printed Histories" presented by Beauvais Lyons, from University of Tennessee, Knoxville (USA) at the IMPACT Conference, Bristol, United Kingdom, September 22-25, 1999.
http://www.clt.astate.edu/elind/sagaarticleBLyons.htm

Impact 2001

2nd International Printmaking Conference
University of Art & Design, Helsinki

http://www2.uiah.fi/conferences/summeracad/impact/

2nd IMPACT is an important conference on the art of printmaking. As to its content, the conference discusses the relationship between traditional craftsmanship and modern technology; the basic working methods that are thousands of years old meet the present day image editing. Photography is part of printmaking since its birth. It is indeed hard to even imagine contemporary printmaking without the marriage of photography with the hand made print. 2nd IMPACT is however not only interested in raising issues concerning the technical aspects of printmaking, but intends also to deal with some relevant questions of content from a Northern and Nordic perspective. Art on paper, paper as a surface to print on - the space of paper - are the collective theme of 2nd IMPACT . Printmaking is a form of expression in progress.

Impact 2003:

Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town
in collaboration with the Rhodes University School of Fine Art, South Africa

It looks like the website is gone but it is available (very slowly) on the web-archive site here

"The previous two Impact International Printmaking Conferences have focused on the impact of technology on creative and conceptual developments in print media. Whilst this issue has importance to printmaking, the discourse around conceptual developments and theory that has taken place in contemporary practice has to a large extent been overlooked. It is the aim of this conference to explore the impact of recent conceptual and theoretical developments in contemporary practice on printmaking and map their influence on contemporary print culture.

Working Proof: The impact of prints in a social, political and cultural context

• Frontiers. Notions of exploration, boundaries and limits. The dissolution of boundaries between printed art and other media and the redefinition of new parameters.
• Conflict. Ideas of opposition and hostility reflected in printed art. The cultural hegemony of prints from the western world
• Repackaging. Looking back at notions of history, identity, race and gender through a contemporary re-interpretation of the past in prints. Towards developing a new print language in a post-colonial context.
• Traces. Looking at the traces of historical events in contemporary culture and print media, and about the ways that history is produced through the recognition of such traces. Possible areas of interpretation might include relics, ruins, monuments and memorials; the found object; histories of recording and the discourses of history, archaeology, and genealogy.
• Exile. Notions of marginalisation through political and cultural isolation, but also arrival and departure that evokes thought of exile. Possible areas of interpretation could include corruption; prison islands, military experiment, social engineering, encampments and states of siege; discourses of first contact; home and homesickness; longing and belonging."

there is a conference exhibition here http://www.uwe.ac.uk/amd/cfpr/impdata.htm