Three Sides to a Sheet of Paper

How Prints Communicate, Represent, and Transform (1482 – 2002)

Oct. 19 – Dec. 4, 2007

Three Sides to a Sheet of Paper
How Prints Communicate, Represent, and Transform (1482 – 2002)
Curated by Timothy Riggs, organized and circulated by the Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Exhibition catalogue available

Three Sides to a Sheet of Paper offers an engaging approach to understanding the print. With more than 80 prints, ranging from the 15th to the 21st century, the exhibition explores how prints communicate, represent, and transform their content in techniques ranging from woodcuts to photomechanical processing.

As multiple images, prints were the first medium of mass communication, diffusing everything from religious instruction and political propaganda to art and fashion. To do this, they had to represent forms, ideas, and often other works of art. But the artists’ mastery of the technical requirements of the various print techniques inevitably transformed what they represented, translating images into new languages of line, color, and texture.

The exhibition includes masters of the "hand-made" print from Dürer and Rembrandt to Picasso and Rauschenberg, alongside rare works by less familiar artists, including Lucas van Leyden, Hendrick Goltzius, Jacques Callot, Rodolphe Bresdin, and even some works by master artists not typically known for their prints including Bruegel, Raphael and Rubens. Others are less obvious examples of the fine art print such as magazine covers or a photomechanical poster, The Sopranos, Fourth Season by Annie Leibovitz. A catalogue is available.