Pressing Matters: Issues in the History of Print

Catalog description

Inexpensive, reproducible, and easy to disseminate, prints have been made on paper and other materials for more than 1000 years. In this course, we will study the history of printmaking, paying particularly close attention to the ways that the print medium has engendered social, political, and racial identity throughout its history. The Cleveland Museum of Art is home to an astounding collection of prints and the curators of the Prints and Drawings department will support the course with access to the collection via the Art Study Room. Students will also learn the methods and techniques used by printmakers from early modernity (c. 1500) to the present day, and will interrogate the ways that technological advancements have impacted the circulation of printed visual materials amongst diverse populations. Rather than write a final research paper, however, students will simultaneously be engaged with our community partner organization, Zygote Press, and will work on site on a service-learning project with teens. This real-world problem-solving project will press students to think creatively and critically about how art works in the world and about the way that art history may be put into the service of the city at large. Offered as ARTH 364 , ARTH 464 , HSTY 364 , and HSTY 464 .