FORCE FIELDS: ROME AND CONTEMPORARY PRINTMAKING Force Fields: Rome and Contemporary Printmaking is both a sourcebook on the capital role that Rome has played in printmaking and a state-of-the-field of contemporary practices. Leading experts retrace the history of prints from the Renaissance to the current day; Roman master printers recount their experiences working with some of the artists who define twentieth-century art. These diverse perspectives illuminate the evolution of and recent shifts in making and diffusing prints in Rome. A richly illustrated catalogue of contemporary works, by locally-trained and international artists drawn to Rome, is introduced by a purview of the varied conceptions — and force fields — operative in printmaking today. Intended for specialists and non-specialists alike, this volume will delight anyone interested in printmaking, inform those curious about Rome’s past and present role in the visual arts, and serve as a reference book for printmakers and their critical historians. Front cover art: Devin Kovach, Passage, monotype screenprint on Arches 88 paper, 2016 Back cover and Interchapter art: Devin Kovach, Rome Remix, lithograph on Rives BFK paper, 2019, a reworking of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s 1756 etching, Pianta di Roma EDITED BY SARAH LINFORD AND DEVIN KOVACH Graphic Design: Alyssa Hamilton Typesetting: Mary Rose Zuppo PALOMBI EDITORI FORCE FIELDS Force Fields: ROME AND CONTEMPORARY PRINTMAKING Edited by Sarah Linford and Devin Kovach Temple University Press Philadelphia Rome Tokyo TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 tupress.temple.edu In collaboration with PALOMBI EDITORI Rome, Italy 00165 www.palombieditori.it Copyright © 2020 by Temple University— Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education All rights reserved Published 2020 ISBN 978-88-6060-882-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-4399-1882-1 (open access) The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Table of Contents 11 FOREWORD Hilary Link 15 INTRODUCTION Hester Stinnett 21 PART I: PERSPECTIVES ON PRINTMAKING 125 PART II: PRINTMAKING IN THE PRESENT 263 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Devin Kovach and Sarah Linford PART I Perspectives on Printmaking 23 DEVIN KOVACH “The Eternal Return: Rome as a Site for Study and Practice of the Graphic Arts Today” 33 FRANK DABELL “Prints of Rome, Prints for Rome” 41 JÉRÔME DELAPLANCHE “French Printmakers in Rome: the Case of the Villa Medici - French Academy” 49 ANTONELLA RENZITTI “The Major Italian Print Studios of the 1960s: Grafica Romero, Grafica Uno, 2RC, Litografia R. Bulla” 61 ARIANNA MERCANTI “The Etched Mark: Roman Experiments in the 1970s” 67 CLAUDIO ZAMBIANCHI 97 RUTH PELZER-MONTADA “Roberto, Romolo and Rosalba Bulla: “Printmaking — Contemporary Two Generations of Printers in Rome” Perspectives” 75 LA LITOGRAFIA BULLA: 109 JASON SCUILLA AN INTERVIEW—ROMOLO, “Conference Notes—Transforming ROSALBA, FLAMINIA, AND Printmaking through Chemical BEATRICE BULLA Innovation: Etching with Electrical by Devin Kovach and Sarah Linford Current” 83 GIUSEPPE LO RUSSO & 117 RICHARD HRICKO MATTEO BORSOI: “Conference Notes—Laser-Engraved Tonal Wood-Block Prints: Print Think Italy, THE ISTITUTO CENTRALE May 2018” PER LA GRAFICA’S MASTER PRINTERS: AN INTERVIEW by Devin Kovach and Sarah Linford 91 ALESSANDRO FORNACI “The Stamperia del Tevere and the Centro Sperimentale della Grafica Incisa” PART II Printmaking in the Present 127 SARAH LINFORD “Field-notes from Rome” 145 IMPRONTE ROMANE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN PRINTMAKING, EXHIBITED ARTISTS Ron Abram Sandro Mele Francine Kay Affourtit Stefano Minzi Riccardo Ajossa Riccardo Pecchioli Thomas Baldischwyler Julie Rebecca Poulain Gianna Bentivenga Usama Saad Maria Pina Bentivenga Jason Scuilla Marina Bindella Hester Stinnett Virginia Carbonelli Francesco Vignola Matthew Colaizzo Anastasiya Voskoboinikova Lindsay Deifik Susanna Doccioli Alessandro Fornaci Edgars Gluhovs Oona Grimes Inma Herrera Christoph Keller Andrew Kozlowski 207 INVITED ARTISTS Dario Agati Roberto Piloni Elena Boni Rujunko Pugh Lucia Cadeddu Enrico Pusceddu Giorgia Catapano Jacopo Rinaldi Alessia Consiglio Marta Roberti Elisabetta Diamanti Rosaria Scotto Marco Eusepi Tricia Treacy Gabriel Feld Carlo Venturi Valeria Gasparrini José Witteveen Leslie Hirst Richard Hricko Emilie Lundstrøm Roberto Mannino Lorenzo Modica Alexis Nutini Gianna Parisse Tatjana Pavićević Cristina Piciacchia campus influences and inspires its future. And this consideration is, in many ways, what Foreword we at Temple Rome have always wanted the thousands of students who have studied HILARY LINK here to understand: that Rome represents an DEAN, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY ROME, ideal laboratory and studio for learning about 2013–2019 contemporary issues—whether in the visual arts, human rights and immigration, literature, art history, or engineering—which is possible In May 2018, Temple University’s historic campus only by understanding the historical layers in Rome was honored to host Print Think Italy superimposed, one on the other, throughout 2018: The Eternal Return—History, Culture, the city and without which the modern and the and Contemporary Italian Printmaking— contemporary could not be as they are. the inaugural international iteration of the Tyler School of Art’s annual conference on When I was dean of one of the longest-running issues of contemporary printmaking practice— and most respected American universities and concurrently, in the Temple University in Italy, I thought a lot about the foresight Rome Gallery of Art, the contemporary and innovation that the Tyler School of Art printmaking show Impronte Romane: New demonstrated in founding a campus here Directions in Printmaking. Temple Rome was in Rome more than fifty years ago. In August for many reasons the ideal location in which 1965, Charles LeClair, longtime professor and to contrast and contrapose the old and the dean at the Tyler School of Art, proposed new, the antique and the contemporary, in and had accepted by the board of trustees printmaking today. As the subtitle of Print Think an initial plan for a branch campus of Tyler Italy 2018 so nicely captured, in Rome, it is abroad. A few students came for the summer always the case that what’s old is new again— of 1966, and the first real cohort of twenty-four particularly so at Temple Rome, and especially undergraduates and twelve master of fine arts in the area of printmaking. Just as this book students arrived by boat in Naples in September highlights the work of master printers who 1966. The study and practice of printmaking “ensure the transfer of knowledge and began almost immediately, and the expansive know-how,” as described in the conference’s printmaking studio still in use today was set press release, the contemporary artists in this up in 1967. Temple staked out territory in the volume form an essential link between the past very same Villa Caproni that it still occupies and the present. today, a modern-facing move that involved immersing students in the past to help them Having celebrated in 2016 the fiftieth better understand the future they would soon anniversary of Temple Rome’s founding in face. And that is still the crux of our mission 1966, we have spent a lot of time recently and the crux of the experience we help our examining how the illustrious history of this students have; it is ultimately what makes time FORWARD 11 here so life changing for the approximately thirteen thousand students who have since come through our doors. As an institution, we continue to evolve and grow. Temple Rome is in the process of transforming from a study-abroad program to a more comprehensive global campus of Temple University, with a broader mission × to serve the entire university and the local Roman community in various ways. Transnational collaborations, such as Print Think Italy and Impronte Romane, are models for how Temple Rome can serve as not only Tyler’s European and Mediterranean partner but also a hub of connectivity and expanded research between our community and that of the extraordinary city and culture where we have been fortunate enough to place roots. Dr. Hilary Link is the president of Allegheny College, a position that she assumed after serving as dean at Temple University Rome, overseeing all aspects of Temple’s Rome campus from December 2013 until July 2019. Link holds a master of arts degree and a doctorate in Italian language and literature from Yale University. She completed her bachelor’s degree in art history and Italian at Stanford University, during which time she studied at Stanford’s Florence campus. Before joining Temple, she spent twelve years at Barnard College, where she most recently served as vice provost, responsible for curriculum, international programs, academic assessment, and faculty grants. At Barnard, Link also served as first-year class dean, dean for study abroad, associate provost, and dean for international programs. In addition, she organized the Global Symposia Series—a gathering of high-profile women in business, finance, politics, and the arts for conversations on women’s leadership. The annual symposia have been held in Beijing, Dubai, Johannesburg, Mumbai, São Paulo, and Shanghai. Link also created Barnard’s Visiting International Students Program (VISP), which brings students from partner universities around the globe to Barnard for a semester of study. In 2011, these programs received the NAFSA: