Monotype

Monotype printing allows only originals/unique pieces to be produced. This is why it is also referred to as a »single-printing process«. It is created by making a single impression on (usually) paper from a plate (metal, glass, or similar) to which ink has previously been applied using a roller or brush.

The studio is equipped with plastic and glass panels up to 60 × 100 cm in size. In our workshops, we typically use 25 × 25 cm glass panels, each painted with letterpress oil paint. Various tools, stencils, and materials are available.

Explanation

And already for this there are various other possibilities which determine the expression and which are worth trying out… There are the brush and roller monotypes, black and white, multi-coloured, stencil… and other monotypes with the various manifestations of color flow and effects of the printing forces and media as well as other printing materials besides paper.

Technical procedure

History

Signing of prints

according to the »rules« by Lothar Lang, Der Graphiksammler, Berlin 1979

On the left side under the print, prints before the edition are marked with Roman numerals, possibly also as a proof = E.E., or as a proof for the artist (number = 10% of the edition size) = e.a./E.A. = Épreuves d’artiste = A.P., or outside the sale = h.c. = hors commerce; the edition, if the printing sequence is known, is marked as a fraction, with the serial number in the numerator and the edition number in the denominator. (Otherwise always 1–number of print run).

On the right is the signature and the date of creation, in the center a possible title and/or cycle. Sometimes the technique is also noted here.

The graphic technique of monotype is often disparagingly and arrogantly dismissed as »children’s stuff« because its potential is misunderstood – yet it is practiced by some renowned artists. These days, such prints are extremely rare in contemporary exhibitions, but the Berggruen Collection in the Stüler Building in Berlin, for example, features some wonderful works by Paul Klee (he called them oil drawing or oil prints). Other artists who also worked in the technique include H. Matisse, C. Rohlfs and H. Janssen.

Monotype (often mistakenly referred to as rubbing or imprinting) can only produce originals/unique pieces. This is why it is also referred to as a »single-printing process«. It is created by a single impression on (usually) paper from a plate (metal, glass, or similar) to which ink has previously been applied using a roller or brush. And even for this, there are various other possibilities that determine the expression and are worth exploring… There are brush and roller monotypes, black and white, multi-colored, stencil… and other monotypes with the various manifestations of ink flow and the effects of printing forces and media, as well as other printing materials besides paper