Hyperallergic on 'The Story of Printmaking': prints as the first mass-shared art
Hyperallergic's Bridget Quinn reviewed Holly EJ Black's 2026 book The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art, and her argument stuck with me: the history of printmaking is, at heart, a history of democratizing art.
Quinn's starting point is how scarce images used to be. Before printing spread, pictures were mostly tied to religious ritual, sacred spaces, specialized education or wealth. Prints were among the first and most lasting challenges to that exclusivity, because they were the first art objects that could be duplicated in large numbers and passed from hand to hand.
The review also points out that printmaking is often treated as secondary to painting and sculpture, even though prints carried religious belief and intellectual history around the world, and served as tools of propaganda and protest. According to Quinn, Black's book brings in perspectives from many regions and puts figures who may not have been artists themselves at the center of the story.
The review is illustrated with Hokusai's Fuji Seen from Kanaya on the Tokaido, from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (c. 1830-32), a good reminder of how a woodblock could make one image reach a huge audience.
As someone who enjoys woodcut and linocut, I liked this framing. Every time you pull a print, you are doing a small version of the same thing: making one idea available to many hands. Quinn closes by suggesting the message is especially relevant right now, and I think she is right.
Source: Hyperallergic
Quinn's starting point is how scarce images used to be. Before printing spread, pictures were mostly tied to religious ritual, sacred spaces, specialized education or wealth. Prints were among the first and most lasting challenges to that exclusivity, because they were the first art objects that could be duplicated in large numbers and passed from hand to hand.
The review also points out that printmaking is often treated as secondary to painting and sculpture, even though prints carried religious belief and intellectual history around the world, and served as tools of propaganda and protest. According to Quinn, Black's book brings in perspectives from many regions and puts figures who may not have been artists themselves at the center of the story.
The review is illustrated with Hokusai's Fuji Seen from Kanaya on the Tokaido, from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (c. 1830-32), a good reminder of how a woodblock could make one image reach a huge audience.
As someone who enjoys woodcut and linocut, I liked this framing. Every time you pull a print, you are doing a small version of the same thing: making one idea available to many hands. Quinn closes by suggesting the message is especially relevant right now, and I think she is right.
Source: Hyperallergic
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